Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

I'll confess right from the beginning.  I am a Star Trek fan.  A gizmo-loving hardware freak.   I fell in love with The Enterprise the first time I saw it (along with every variation and model designation since).  I cut my eye teeth on the original James Tiberius Kirk and my no bull shit, pointy-eared friend Spock.  I booed and applauded whenever the original Khan Noonien Singh showed up. And those fracken' Klingons . . . . sigh!

 I've loved it all, buddy.

But I gotta say I'm a sucker for tekkie gizmos in flashy Sci/Fi movies.

Example; when The Enterprise punches into Warp from a standing still position, a big, big, big grin of pure dumb pleasure spreads across my lips.  Every time.  Without exception.

(Even love the difference in the way Captain Picard says, "Make it so," and boom! Warp speed.  While the rebooted Kirk can say, "Punch it!"  And whammo!  We're there, baby!)

Loved J.J. Abrams rebooting of the series.  Thought the way he remolded the major characters in the series into deeper, more interesting three dimensional living creatures fascinating.  And so when I heard Abrams was making Star Trek Into Darkness . . . . Holy Hanna and her bad Habits!  I was ready for it!

(By the way . . . have I said to you how much I love Star Trek?  I did?  Oh . . . . okay.  Just wanted you to be aware of my fondness for it.)

So how was Star Trek Into Darkness, you ask.  My answer: FRACKEN AWESOME, BABY!

Made so, no less, by the amazing Benedict Cumberbatch's portrait of Khan Noonien Singh.  The original Kahn (portrayed by Ricardo Montalban) was a revenge-filled monster who allowed his hate for Kirk to cloud his judgement and dim his so-called super intellect.  The New Khan of Cumberbatch's vision is very different.  We have a darker nuanced, far more interesting look onto that cold dish called Revenge.  Cold.  Calculating.  Infinitely cruel.  Incredibly intelligent. Absolutely determined to exact every savory second of maniacal delight from those he wishes to torment.

And that voice of Cumberbatch's.  That deep, deep voice.  Measured and precise.  And oh so
deliciously menacing!

If you want a truly good bad guy, Cumberbatch is your fella, Sherlock!

But there was more to this movie than just Khan.  I really enjoyed the word play between Kirk and Spock.  The personalities growing to like each other and meld into a deep, deep friendship everyone knows Kirk and Spock had from the first go around.  But there was Bones' constant pessimism mixed with a commitment to get things done. Along with his friendship developing between Kirk and Spock.   And there's Scotty . . . the ship's Chief Engineer.  Feisty little fella, this Scotsman.

Aye, laddie.  Ya gotta hand it to J. J. Abrams and his talent at making a good movie.  I agree with the pundits;  there was an uncanny but subtle visual feast of a man who loved and admired the Star Trek series back in his childhood.  A man who, while honoring the past, has definitely put a stamp of his version of a new Star Trek.

The opening four day run of the movie sucked in $84 million dollars.  A fantastic haul from the box office.  But the studios were disappointed.  They actually thought Into Darkness would crack the $100 million mark.  The greedy bastards.  Before this movie goes into the DVD market it's  going to go way over the billion dollar mark. Waaaaaaaaay over that mark!

Surely that should satisfy every one's expectations, shouldn't it?

Even if you're not a Trekkie you should see this movie.  It's that good.