Star Trek Into Darkness ignores its own mission statement and boldly goes where other Star Treks have gone before. JJ Abrams takes on the best of the old Trek World movies Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and manages a statistical tie. With all the Khan echoes floating in the first quadrant of the film, the big reveal that Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison is Khan is the biggest non-spoiler ever kept hidden in movie media history. Cumberbatch with his chilly line readings and stance sets up the parallel between the cool, calculating unemotional Harrison/Khan and the logical, repressed emotionalism of Zachary Quinto’s Spock, each actor now resting in Trekker’s mind as the best representation of any Trek character. That’s the other half that goes “into darkness” with Chris Pine’s Kirk fluctuating between hotheaded recklessness, gut instinct and trying to fold his personality into the peaceful non-involvement of the Star Fleet Prime Directive that is the first part of “darkness”– a voyage that leaves Pine’s Kirk unable to rise above William Shatner’s grand representation. Peter Weller shows up to give the required overwrought performance as the rogue character that instigates all the darkness, battles and seamless special effects that let the rest of the Enterprise crew (Simon Pegg’s Scotty being the stand out) have their 10 minutes of acting, drama and character reveal. Star Trek Into Darkness gets a B+.
