STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Im sorry... Werent you saying something about boldly going where no one has gone before?
With his 2009 reboot of Star Trek, director J.J. Abrams placated longtime fans by establishing that his voyages of the Starship Enterprise were unfolding in a parallel universe, leaving the original Shatner/Nimoy adventures safely stowed in their own timeline.
More importantly, this distinction afforded Abrams carte blanche to explore this rich fictional universe as he saw fit, free of the tyranny of continuity.
Disappointingly, he and his troika of screenwriters have squandered this creative freedom, opting instead to run for the safety of the storyline thats considered to be Star Treks zenith.
After a swashbuckling opening that finds Abrams once again doing his best Spielberg impersonation, events are steered into more sombre territory. A mysterious übermensch (Benedict Cumberbatch) wages jihad on Starfleet, racking up casualties before retreating to hostile Klingon territory.
Despite having just been disciplined for his recklessness, James Kirk (Chris Pine) is deemed the ideal candidate to bring the madman in dead or alive.
Trading heavily in allusions to the war on terror, Into Darkness also devotes much middling dialogue to the ideological differences between Kirk and Spock (Zachary Quinto).
Once Cumberbatchs true identity is finally revealed (to nary a dropped jaw), what follows is the bare minimum of spectacle that Paramount should expect as a return on their $185-million investment.
What lingers is the sincere hope that whoever takes the Star Trek helm next proves less beholden to whats come before and makes good on that pledge to explore strange new worlds rather than simply revisit familiar territory.
