Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

I must confess that I am not up to date on my Star Trek history. I have seen my fair share of episodes of the series and a few of the original movies, which is probably about as much as the average individual has seen. I think this general lack of knowledge is beneficial to critiquing J. J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movies, because being a diehard fan would inspire endless nitpicking and knowing nothing at all would make the whole affair extremely pointless. Abrams’ movies are for the people like me who have only a vague understanding of the Star Trek universe, but enough to recognize when the audience is being duped. Star Trek: Into Darkness is the follow-up to the rightly successful first film in a reboot of the ever-popular series and it was an exciting beginning, full of original ideas that set it apart from its predecessors without betraying the fan base. This sequel is a decidedly lesser entertainment. It will do for those who really don’t care, but is too much weighed down by its own meandering.

At just under 2 ½ hours in length, it is shocking just how little really happens in it. I hesitate to say that it actually tells a story. The film is more like a series of self-contained episodes that do nothing to further any greater narrative or even provide more depth to the characters involved. These people very well could have been anyone, as the starship Enterprise runs into some peril, battles it briefly and overcomes it… over and over again. I will say that the actors chosen to play these familiar faces were well-picked, but they were more interesting during their last outing. Here they have nothing to do, having been reduced to the most minimal personalities or completely forgotten about. One character in particular has an identity that Abrams probably thought would increase the excitement of the picture, but only disappoints as we retread territory that has already been covered more iconically. I will not reveal this identity here, though even the slightest Star Trek fan will probably figure it out before the overdramatic reveal. A friend of mine knew who he was after seeing the teaser a year ago.

That is Star Trek: Into Darkness’ biggest misstep. The movie only exists to show us this extended battle against a villain nobody wanted to see again in the first place, showing a disappointing laziness in the writing. After being so impressed with where the last Star Trek movie went, including making the wise decision to place the reboot series on a different  timeline than the original, this one drops firmly back into a timeline with boundaries and limits. Abrams could have done virtually anything with this movie and took the easy route. Besides all that, the movie is just incredibly pointless in general. Almost nothing happens that is of any significance. Everything happens to either give the appearance of storytelling with phony dramatic situations that resolve themselves in minutes or provide throwaway laughs with comic relief that is too broad to remain funny for long. I must also protest against the whiplash editing of the movie, which follows that unwritten commandment of the modern action epic: Thou shalt not be able to tell what the devil is going on.

In a TV series that consists of literally hundreds of episodes, you have some room to throw in tales that don’t move a larger story along and simply exist as entertaining filler for a week. The original Star Trek series were full of these sorts of stories, and that’s fine for TV, but when you have a movie series with limited screen time to make an impression it is preferable not to be merely filler. You’d think for all the many millions of dollars spent on this production, there would be some reason for it to exist. Considering the fact that many fans are annoyed with the direction this movie decided to go, Abrams should be warned about giving more of a drive to the inevitable third film. Give us some real reason for sitting through all your action and computer effects. On that note, I must confess the visuals are very impressive and the movie does go through bouts of excitement, but, again, for little reason overall. There was one shot that nearly amazed me: the almost sickeningly enormous planet Jupiter looming over a now tiny-looking spacecraft. It reminded me of those amazing images from 2001: A Space Odyssey that have been burned into my subconscious. However, where Kubrick changed my life, Abrams provides a cheap joke. The amazement didn’t last long.

6/10