Star Trek: Into Darkness

While i was a kid in the 80´s, a friend of mine called Martin was a true Trekkie fan. He had almost all the Star Trek movies on VHS, i remember i borrowed some of them. Even if i enjoyed some of them, i still loved Star Wars movies even more. Maybe because Star Trek felt more like drama, than sci fi action. When the 90´s kicked in, Star Trek developed with more action and more special effects. And even with much more darker characters than in the earlier productions. Still, i prefered Star Wars, for many reasons. When Patrick Stewart left his character Jean-Luc Pecard in 2002, many fans waited for a new Star Trek movie. After years of speculation, director J.J Abrams decided to make a more updated Star Trek movie. In 2009 a new Star Trek Movie hit the streets and became a huge box office hit. In fact, it did so well it took in 385 million dollars at the box office, now thats a great number for a sci fi movie. Now we have a sequel in our hands, Star Trek : Into Darkness. I enjoyed the updated version of Star Trek, so this time around is this still a solid sci fi sequel, or is it more about serving special effects ?

Captain James T. Kirk ( Chris Pine ) have now lost his command of the USS Enterprise, since he violated the Prime Directive. Instead, Admiral  Christopher Pike ( Bruce Greenwood ) is chosen to be the commander officer to USS Enterprise. Thankfully, Admiral Pike manage to persuade that Kirk should be assigned as his first officer, wich is approved. Suddenly a big tragedy strikes London, where the city is bombed. Pike and Kirk attend a meeting with the Starfleet commanders, to discuss the manhunt of John Harrison ( Benedict Chumbercatch ). But the meeting end in tragedy, when Harrison attack the Starfleet commanders, killing almost everyone with his jumpship. Kirk manage to survive and injure Harrison´s jumpship, as he manage to escape to the homeworld of Kronos. Pike does not survive. A new decision is made, Kirk is back as commander of USS Enterprise, as he prepare his crew for a journey, to find Harrison and revenge Pike´s death. But plans does not turn out the way Kirk hoped, and he has to face some more problems along the way. Also, Kirk is informed that James Harrison´s real name is actually Khan, a genetically engineered superhuman. Khan is finally captured, and Kirk is about to take him to earth, to let him stand trial for all his crimes, but they are suddenly attacked by the Federation warship, the USS Vengeance. Kirk is determined to take Khan to a trial, no matter what he has to do.

I admit, i surrender. How can you not love this ? Some of the best special effects i have seen in a sci fi movie in many years, acting on top level, and a story that actually works suprisingly well. Most of all i really love the evil Khan ( played fantastic by Benedict Cumberbatch ), he really knows how to make a villain in a very emotional way. Simon Pegg is actually really funny this time, and let´s not forget Chris Pine. I have never really taken time to see that he is a very talented actor, as Commander James T. Kirk, he knows exactly how to bring this character to life on a big screen. Looking back at the old Star Trek movies, i always felt most of them were slow, uninspired. But then something happened. In the 90´s the budget became bigger, the actors at least tried to deliver something more than the usual content. But it was not until in 2009, i found Star Trek to be inspiring, a fresh new start of something improved, in many ways. So i am happy to say, today the Star Trek franschise have a much better future ahead, and with Star Trek: Into Darkness, you get more of everything the older movies did not have. If you love intelligent sci fi action, you will guaranteed love this sequel. By the way, great to see Peter Weller in a big budget motion picture again, he should be offered more roles hopefully. Time to put the Star Trek uniform on, make a salute, and maybe someone will beam me up.

Rating: DDDD