Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

IMDb

Title: Star Trek Into Darkness  
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writer(s):  Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, and Benedict Cumberbatch
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence.
Running Time: 132 min
Synopsis: After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 86% "Fresh", Top Critics: 80% "Fresh", Audience: 89% "Like It"
Metacritic: Critics: 73 out of 100, Users: 7.8 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 74 out of 100

My Review

Source Material: Characters based off of television show Star Trek The Original Series, created by Gene Roddenberry. 

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Oh Yeah....Boom, there was another explosion. If you like action film then this might be up your ally.     

• Comedy Elements: The majority of the jokes in this film are place their for avid Star Trek fan. "Damn it Jim I'm a doctor, not a movie reviewer"    

• Dramatic Elements: This film hints at it to a degree with the revenge tone of the film.     

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: There was good 1,400 effect shots. With an action space movie what do you expect?    

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 7: The acting chops carried over from the first film but there is one guy that everyone will be talking about and that is Benedict Cumberbatch. I personally haven't seen an episode of Sherlock so I can't compare performances, but he did a great job in this film. I believe a major selling point for an actor is how well they can perform as a villain.              

• Art Direction: 6: I personally don't like a shiney future. I'm more of a fan of a "lived" in future like that of Star Wars.  

• Cinematography: 8: I think the camera choice allowed for the action to develop. I also like some of the camera transitions that brought the atmosphere that we "the viewer" was in space. Another thing I like was the flow of the film. I felt like I was walking along side the actors.  

• Direction: 8: The film was very well paced for most part. I think there was some story flaws near the beginning that slowed it down a bit.           

• Editing: 7: That flow I talked about earlier also was reflected in the editing, which was very nice.      

• Screenplay: 7: The characters in Star Trek have a good 30 years of development, so fans of Star Trek are going to look for those quirks...When they see them or hear them in the case of a catch phrase, they will think, "That's Kirk I know and love" This film like its predecessor dose a great job of inserting those classic "Star Trek" elements. As far as the story goes I personally thing the events that happen near the beginning could have played out slightly different, because I felt it was a little on "beating around the bush" side. Basically I was thinking the entire time in my head, this should happen or will happen, or I will be mad.

• Sound and Music: 7: I think the score was classic Star Trek and was very well done.       

• VFX: 9: I willing to be this film is among the top film in visual effect category at the Oscars.      

Overall: 7.5: I feel overall this film was very exciting and entertaining, I think even more so for a Star Trek fan. I recommend it and it might very well be worth watching it a couple of times.