Star Trek - Into Darkness

I finally saw the new Star Trek movie. Don't worry, I'll try hard not to reveal any plot twists or spoilers.

Bottom line: It's pretty good.

There's a LOT in this movie that will delight fans of the series. But those are precisely the things I can't talk about. So I'll just provide my feedback in generic terms.

Let's begin with a comparison to the first of the reboot movies.

Chris Pine is pretty good, and I like his take on Kirk. Since this story takes place before the "five year mission" of the original series, his youth and brashness seems an appropriate basis for the more mature captain we see fighting thralls and outwitting Nazis a few years later. In fact, I like this Kirk so much that I find myself wanting to see more about how he handled getting through the Academy. I want to see him fighting with Finnegan, facing whatever educational challenges they had in addition to the Kobayashi Maru test, and studying the works of Daystrom and Cochrane in between overnight encounters with nubile coeds.

Sylar is exactly who I would have chosen to play Spock, too. And Bones, well...as in the first movie, Bones is perfect. I wish he'd get more screen time.

I had a little trouble with Simon Pegg as Scotty in the first movie, but I'm on board now. He's great in this one. I think his wart-faced pet thing is a little weird (and completely unnecessary), but I'd certainly call on Scotty if I had an engineering problem to solve. Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov are OK in this one, too. I was disappointed that Yeoman Rand still hasn't appeared, but I suppose that can wait.

I like Captain Pike, too. And having Robocop as an admiral was also a good move. The uniforms look sharp, and the bad guy was appropriately menacing.

My only two complaints about the casting are these: The hot chick shouldn't speak with a British accent. And the bad guy would've been better with long hair and a different accent as well. But those are minor nits.

I loved all the tributes you'll find in this movie. From the opening scene's reverence for Indiana Jones to the various twists on dialog from previous Trek incarnations, this movie is jam-packed with moments where your previous viewing experience is leveraged to enrich your enjoyment of what's happening here. Oh sure, there are more explosions and fights than are necessary -- after all, the foundation of Star Trek franchise has always been the relationships and ideas -- but despite the overabundance of action and noise, there is enough of the deep philosophy and entertaining banter to hold your interest and affection.

There are a couple of things, though, that bugged me. First, there's a whole bunch of new types of aliens on the Enterprise. I don't object to the concept per se, since I'll accept that there should've been more blue and green folks on the original crew if it truly is the United Federation of Planets. But in this movie, every time they showed one of the new species, it took me out of the plot for a second, as I wondered why they felt it necessary to shove in a bunch of political xeno-correctness at the risk of the story.

Second, there are a few things that conflict with the original series' timeline. Yes, I know that things changed when the Hulk blew up Vulcan. But that event would not magically make Tribbles and Gorns suddenly appear years ahead of when they had been discovered in the previous universe. I understand that new Kirk and new Spock may make different decisions this time around, and that T'Pau and T'Pring have probably been reduced to atoms...but that doesn't mean that the encounters with Gary Sevin and Edith Keeler, et al, are suddenly in the past instead of the future.

(Well, OK, those were probably bad examples, but you know what I mean.)

And c'mon -- ships that were launched before the formation of the Federation would still be in space...not in some warehouse where they could be accessed for nefarious purposes. It's as if Star Fleet somehow found Nomad in some old crate under the building and trotted him out to help sterilize some new lab equipment. Blowing up Vulcan doesn't suddenly bring stuff back that was launched 100 years before.

(And in a related query, wouldn't you think that Original Spock would recommend that Star Fleet contact the Organians so the whole Klingon thing could be resolved earlier this time around? That seems like the logical thing to do.)

Anyway, the bottom line is that I'm strongly recommending the movie. And I'm already looking forward to the next one. Buy your ticket, enjoy the ride, and have a great day!