Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

*Spoilers*

"Whoa! Are you two in a fight?  What is that like?" (James T. Kirk)

Hmmmm.  I am not generally in favor of remakes.  So, I am unsure where Star Trek: Into Darkness fits in.  It's not a remmake, but it is a rehash.  It was silly and breaks with many facets of the Star Trek that I know and love, but it was magnificent and well crafted with a superior cast.  It's like if someone told you there was liver in your hamburger, but you couldn't taste it, and you still truly thought it delicious.  

So, I am going to throw out any comparisons that I could make to The Wrath of Khan in favor of thinking of them as heartfelt homages and fantastic story writing.  

J.J. Abrams, How are you so awesome at things?  I don't quite get how you can keep making such amazing things and not suffer a few flops.  Even Cloverfield had enough suspense and cool for me to forgive it for lacking a true story.  Can I intern for you at Bad Robot?  If you are a reader of this blog, please leave an email address where I can send a resume and as many letters of recommendation as I can muster.  

Now to the movie.  I think the true winner of the movie was Benedict Cumberbatch.  I don't know if I would have accepted a role as the great and powerful KHAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN, who was so competently portrayed by Ricardo Montalban.  Yet, Cumberbatch arrives at his evil and despotic ways through a far more cool, meticulous, and scary portrait of the written character.  One portrayal wore his madness on his sleeve, the other buried in a poker face.  

While there are many people that deserve adulation for Star Trek: Into Darkness, I am going to give mine to the story writers for their ability to write a wonderfully circular narrative that remained true to itself yet still invoked the ashes of The Wrath of Khan.  What would a second Star Trek movie without a KKKKHHHHHHHAAAAAANNNNNN and a selfless sacrifice.  I know, I should have seen the death of Kirk instead of Spock coming from the second his command was taken away, but I admit it, I was caught up in the story too much to see the inner workings of the script. I will also add a bravo to the story writers for their solution to death because it saved everyone from a reimmagining of the truly dreadful Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  (Unquestionably the worst Star Trek movie of them all.)  

Ratings:

Abrams-ophiles:  See it 

Scots:  Skip it (Simon Pegg I like you, but you Scottish accent is not perfect. I'm not Scottish so take that for what you will.)

Trekkies:  Must See

Obsessive Continuity Seekers:  Skip it (If you have seen any other Star Trek films of TV you know that the trip to Cronus takes days and not minutes.  For the purposes of this film time, distance, and space are purely abstract concepts meant for narrative push not continuity,)

Karl Urban:  More of you in all things please

On a scale of Ayn Rand to The Borg, I give Star Trek: Into Darkness 3.75 stars out of 5.