MYST#1: Star Trek: Into Darkness

Beam yourself up into 132 minutes of action, adventure, mystery and a crap-ton of lens flares in this sequel to the highly praised reboot of the 1960s Television Series.

Now I never watched the original TV series or any of its movies and now after seeing both these flicks I'm still not interested. Luckily, thanks to J.J. Abrams, you don't need to have any knowledge of the original series to get invested with either films.

The Team is back: Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldanna), Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), plus new characters such as Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) and John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Sadly with all these characters some have to be pushed aside like, Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin).  I'll give brief descriptions of the main characters because I do believe these characters really make the movie.

Chris Pine does a good job of playing Captain Kirk again. We can see him pay homage to original actor, William Shatner, by hamming it up but mildly and also putting enough of himself in the role to make it his own.

Zachary Quinto should get an award for his portrayal of Spock. He plays an alien who doesn't emote yet somehow his presence gives off respect, loyalty, trustworthiness and lovingness. Speaking of which, the romance. between Spock and Saldanna's character is cute, believable and not shoved down our throats or contrived.

Sadly the only character who didn't leave a huge impact was Zoe Saldanna's role. Her acting and portrayal was fine but it felt like she only did one thing, which was speak cling-on (or however you spell it)

Benedict Cumberbatch plays *SPOILERS*.  John Harrison is just a fictitious role conjured up to hide his true identity. Although only "Trekkies" (as the fans call themselves) will known Cumberbatch's character and people not familiar with franchise might recognize the name but won't be a %100 sure. I can at least say his acting is sharp, strict and to the point. He demands so much fear and respect and Im not sure he allows his face to twitch while holding that frown constantly through the entire movie.

Now remember when I said some characters were pushed aside? Well some were brought up more like Simon Pegg's portrayal of the enginer Scotty who, In my opinion, almost stole the show with his performance. He puts so much time and energy into this character you think, "Oh that must be how the actor normally is in reality." I could go on about him but I want to get to my favorite character...

Now remember when I said some characters were pushed aside, again? While not the most, Karl Urbans performance as Dr. "Bones" McCoy was reduced due to the large number of characters which I thought was rather disappointing. In fact I believed he deserved more screen time in first film as well. Karl plays Bones as a man of experience and morality. A man of aggression but still believes in the peaceful route. A young grump.  I've always seen Spock and Bones as the two angels on Kirks shoulders each telling him how to handle the situation. Off-topic but after seeing Urbans performance I immediately thought Hollywood should've looked at him to be the new Batman instead of Ben Affleck.

Into Darkness is mostly CG, but there are also a good amount of hand-built sets to go along with it. Also the CG is done quit well. I can tell they're not in space, but it's not attention-stealing bad. The make-up director should also be congratulated, showing us a whole variety of creative creatures who do look real.

Just as TV's original Trek boldly went where '60s civics classes had gone before, Star Trek: Into Darkness, tackles issues with a contemporary ring. There's a suicide bombing, drones and some chatter about genetic engineering.

Director Abrams is working with a script that touches about every touchstone from the original series so you'll understand why I can't give too much away. If you're looking for a good popcorn movie too watch, pick up the first film from 2009 and if you liked it, then go ahead and view Into Darkness. I guarantee you won't be disappointed,