Star Trek: Into Darkness
I love the Star Trek universe. I think it is one of the greatest efforts to bring a comprehensive portrait of what mankind can achieve if they do things right because in this future reality man is still on Earth but has managed to make contact with other races and has been able to organize a community of planets and diverse races into an entity called the United Federation of Planets. There is no longer war or avarice, or hunger and poverty. Mankind looks at the stars and sees new places to explore, not to conquer. In order to do that it is that the starship Enterprise was created: to seek out new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
After several movies and five series, nothing was happening with this franchise. With a fanbase that has proved once and again to be the most faithful, you could have expected some interest to revitalize it but it was until J.J. Abrams came and helmed a new project that the Enterprise would rise again. I must also confess that that Abrams movie was not of my liking. What Abrams did was to go back to the origins and have the original crew face a villain of their own future that would change events and facts of the right timeline that everyone knew and creating another in the process. In this new reality things are somewhat different and it is like all the previous events had been erased.
The second "Abram" does not ,hlook to fix anything. It begins some time later after the first film. The inexperienced but talented Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is having trouble still adjusting to his role, with the Vulcan called Spock (a member of the first alien race to contact humans) who is his first officer and objects all his decisions (Zachary Quinto), a grouchy medical officer called Bones (Karl Urban), a hot communications officer (Zoe Saldana) and so on. After returning from a mission they find the federation is being attacked by a former officer who has turned into a hostile terrorist. This character called Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) knows where to strike and with what severity but his purposes seems obscure. In a meeting with several other commanding officers Harrison appears and launches a surprise attack killing some of them including Admiarla Pike the man that had inspired Kirk to enlist Starfleet. Harrison has seemingly escaped to Kronos a planet that belongs to the Klingon Empire who is enemy of the Federation. Kirk is given the task to go to Kronos with the Enterprise now armed with seventy-two missiles and to destroy the zone where Harrison hides unless he decides to surrender.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
The truth behind Harrison is that he was being used by a a high officer of the Federation called Admiral Marcus to develop weapons for an impeding war with the Klingons. Harrison was a name created by Marcus to hide who he really was, a human genetically enhanced to be the perfect weapon who had been put in cryogenic sleep for 300 years. Marcus had awoken Harrison and obliged him to work for him using Harrison's crew as hostages. Those people were imprisoned in the 72 missiles the Enterprise was to launch against Kronos. In other words Marcus was not only getting ready for war with the Kilingons he also wanted to make it happen even if it meant to sacrifice the Enterprise and its crew.
The only thing that slipped Marcus's scheme was Harrison's votality. He decided to act in his own accord and provokes the terrorist attacks mentioned before and tries to kill Marcus to liberate his comrades. When Kirk arrives at Kronos he talks to Harrison who then reveals Marcus's entire plan and tells him also that his real name is not Harrison but Khan.
When I heard that I finally understood what was going on. Khan is and after this movie still remains the greatest villain in the history of Star Trek. He is so relentless and merciless that the original crew could barely defeat him with Spock having to sacrifice himself to save the day, an action mimicked here by Kirk who also sacrifices himself in a similar manner. Spock had to consult the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy) for advice about Khan. That moment when the two Spocks talked about this villain was perhaps the best of the whole movie.
(END OF SPOILERS)
The only problem with this movie is that the only way to enjoy it at its fullest is if you have been through the "Trek" experience before and that is if you know the characters and the history of this franchise. Many just do not and will not understand the movie when they see it. But everything else is just so amazing. The visuals are all you expect to see in a sci-fi movie and then more. The plot is intelligent and the actors have grown into their roles and have made them their own already. Cumberbatch as the obssessed villain is simply class A and there is no other way to put it, the way he acts, cold sometimes and full of wrath in others is astounding, even chilling. The action and the soundtrack used form a perfect blend and that final sequence when the Enterprise finally departs in a five-year-long mission to explore space with Kirk in off reciting those famous words: "These are the voyages..." well, if you are a Trekker like me you can't help but feel a tingle down the spine when hearing that.
Six stars out of five for this one!
The second "Abram" does not ,hlook to fix anything. It begins some time later after the first film. The inexperienced but talented Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is having trouble still adjusting to his role, with the Vulcan called Spock (a member of the first alien race to contact humans) who is his first officer and objects all his decisions (Zachary Quinto), a grouchy medical officer called Bones (Karl Urban), a hot communications officer (Zoe Saldana) and so on. After returning from a mission they find the federation is being attacked by a former officer who has turned into a hostile terrorist. This character called Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) knows where to strike and with what severity but his purposes seems obscure. In a meeting with several other commanding officers Harrison appears and launches a surprise attack killing some of them including Admiarla Pike the man that had inspired Kirk to enlist Starfleet. Harrison has seemingly escaped to Kronos a planet that belongs to the Klingon Empire who is enemy of the Federation. Kirk is given the task to go to Kronos with the Enterprise now armed with seventy-two missiles and to destroy the zone where Harrison hides unless he decides to surrender.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
The truth behind Harrison is that he was being used by a a high officer of the Federation called Admiral Marcus to develop weapons for an impeding war with the Klingons. Harrison was a name created by Marcus to hide who he really was, a human genetically enhanced to be the perfect weapon who had been put in cryogenic sleep for 300 years. Marcus had awoken Harrison and obliged him to work for him using Harrison's crew as hostages. Those people were imprisoned in the 72 missiles the Enterprise was to launch against Kronos. In other words Marcus was not only getting ready for war with the Kilingons he also wanted to make it happen even if it meant to sacrifice the Enterprise and its crew.
The only thing that slipped Marcus's scheme was Harrison's votality. He decided to act in his own accord and provokes the terrorist attacks mentioned before and tries to kill Marcus to liberate his comrades. When Kirk arrives at Kronos he talks to Harrison who then reveals Marcus's entire plan and tells him also that his real name is not Harrison but Khan.
When I heard that I finally understood what was going on. Khan is and after this movie still remains the greatest villain in the history of Star Trek. He is so relentless and merciless that the original crew could barely defeat him with Spock having to sacrifice himself to save the day, an action mimicked here by Kirk who also sacrifices himself in a similar manner. Spock had to consult the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy) for advice about Khan. That moment when the two Spocks talked about this villain was perhaps the best of the whole movie.
(END OF SPOILERS)
The only problem with this movie is that the only way to enjoy it at its fullest is if you have been through the "Trek" experience before and that is if you know the characters and the history of this franchise. Many just do not and will not understand the movie when they see it. But everything else is just so amazing. The visuals are all you expect to see in a sci-fi movie and then more. The plot is intelligent and the actors have grown into their roles and have made them their own already. Cumberbatch as the obssessed villain is simply class A and there is no other way to put it, the way he acts, cold sometimes and full of wrath in others is astounding, even chilling. The action and the soundtrack used form a perfect blend and that final sequence when the Enterprise finally departs in a five-year-long mission to explore space with Kirk in off reciting those famous words: "These are the voyages..." well, if you are a Trekker like me you can't help but feel a tingle down the spine when hearing that.
Six stars out of five for this one!
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