Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

At long last, I finally made it to the theater to see one of the films I was most anticipating all year: Star Trek Into Darkness. With J.J. Abrams at the helm, and the fact that I did really enjoy his first Star Trek film for the most part, I was expecting greatness. I got a lot of that, but I had a few minor criticisms, too.

Overall I can tell you that as a non-Trekkie, I really dug Star Trek Into Darkness. I'm in no position to pick apart the film the way a true Trekkie would, so I won't even try. I'm just a regular person who sort of liked the Star Trek original series and a few of the movies (most notably, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which I loved as a kid). From a layperson's standpoint, I'll tell you that yes, I was thoroughly entertained for the duration of Star Trek Into Darkness. I plopped down a whopping $14 to see this thing in IMAX 3D, and it was worth it to me.

I speculated not too long ago that I hoped this new Star Trek film would keep up the great unfolding, complicated relationship between the characters of Captain Kirk and Spock. It did. In fact, it did so well, that parts of this film played like a comedy.

My one gripe? I don't really get why Carol Marcus (the gorgeous Alice Eve) had to appear before Kirk in her underwear. It seemed totally out of place, and totally designed to titillate the male-dominated audience in my theater (oh, it did, trust me, lots of "woos" were let out). I follow Star Trek Into Darkness co-writer Damon Lindelof on Twitter (a throwback from my LOST obsession days, and he's really funny), and I noticed that he was pretty quick to offer an apology. He Tweeted:

I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress.

He then added:

We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies. Do not want to make light of something that some construe as mysogenistic.

But really? It just seemed gratuitous.

If that's my only major gripe with Star Trek Into Darkness though, it's a small one compared to the entertainment the movie brings. The action scenes are stellar and completely engaging, the dialogue is snappy and, without giving a huge spoiler away, Benedict Cumberbatch is fantastic. He has such a commanding presence in every single thing he does, doesn't he? Into Darkness was no exception.

Has anyone else out there seen Star Trek Into Darkness? If so, what did you think? I'd love to get a true Trekkie's perspective.

Photo courtesy of G4TV.com