Star Trek Into Darkness

 First Hit:  Kept the thrill, charm, and excitement of the first prequel – I liked it.

What I really liked about the first 2009 “Star Trek” prequel was the embodiment of the original Star Trek television series characters as younger people.

For this film, the thing I was concerned about was if this film would be able to carry through the joy and feel of the characters. The answer is yes. Although there were things that needed some work and scene trimming, the feel of the film worked and it was fun to watch.

I’m not sure what others think, but Chris Pine (playing Kirk) has a great feel of the original Captain Kirk. A brash intelligence mixed in with independence. He knows he doesn’t know everything but he cares about the crew more than himself.

The film begins with him losing the star ship Enterprise do to this brash behavior. Then he is pressed into being captain again because of an attack at Federation HQ by Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) and he's the one who figures it out. The story hangs together really well and the main criticisms where that some scenes, like Spoke in a fist fight with Khan on the cargo containers, was overly long and served no real purpose.

The special effects were well done and did not take over the film but enhanced it.

Pine makes a great Kirk and there is room for him to grow the character in the next film. Zachary Quinto as Spock is very good. Zoe Saldana as Uhura is strong and brings an exotic presence to the bridge. Karl Urban as Bones is slightly overplayed but good enough. Simon Pegg is wonderful as Scotty. John Cho as Sulu holds his character with strength. Anton Yelchin does a wonderful job of embodying Chekov. Cumberbatch did a very good job of being the guy who was going to rule the universe. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman did a good job putting together a fun and interesting script while J.J. Abrams kept the Star Trek theme and feeling alive – kudos.

Overall:  Very entertaining and a good effort for the second prequel.

Star Trek

First Hit: A wonderfully satisfying film which fires on all cylinders and gives depth to the original television characters.

I’ll start by saying I was never a real trekkie or a Star Trek fan. I did like it enough to watch it from time to time. I did enjoy Star Trek Next Generation a lot more as the special effects and story lines were a bit more advanced. However, how did this story begin?

The previous Star Trek films tried to take off from the original TV series. This film, however, puts context to all of it. In the opening sequences, there was a lot of noise, visual effects, and destruction and I was caught a little off balance, but this was a set up from the past to give context to the time slice in which most of the film takes place.

Kirk (Played by Chris Pine) was born out of this destruction and it shapes his young childhood. The story then shifts to the story of Spock (Played by Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy) and his struggles as a half human and half Vulcan.

This film is about how the original crew, their skills and peculiarities come together to make up the “crew of the starship Enterprise” which could fulfill the mission of boldly going where no man has gone before. The enemy used to bring the past, the film’s present, and the future is Nero (Played by Eric Bana) who is a renegade Romulan who uses red matter to induce black holes to shift space and time for his benefit.

I won’t go any further into the plot but it is enough to say that the way Dr. “Bones” McCoy (Played by Karl Urban), Uhura (Played by Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Played by Simon Pegg), Sulu (Played by John Cho), and Chekov (Played by Anton Yelchin) are introduced and brought together was nothing less than wonderfully fantastic.

Each distinctly gets to demonstrate why they were the best person to be an integral piece to the Starship Enterprise.

The main writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman nailed the dialogue and scenes. Director J. J. Abrams eloquently put them together in a story that brings out each of the characters. Pine, Quinto, Urban, Saldana, Pegg, Cho, and Yelchin are perfect to their roles and as the dialog flowed from their mouths I laughed and cried with them. They made Star Trek come alive. Bana is great as the enemy and, although not as dynamic as a previous film’s Khan, he sets the right tone, mood, and power to let the Star Trek team come alive. Then there is Nemoy, I don’t know how they did it, but he fits within this film really well, and when the ending comes, his voice stating the mission of the Starship Enterprise will make me see the next installment.

Overall: This film was great fun. This film put context to the entire Star Trek TV series. This was one of the most satisfying prequels I’ve ever seen. It was a “sit back, let go and enjoy it” kind of film.