Star Trek Into Darkness

“To boldly go where no man has gone before.” You would think it was the perfect sentence to end the second Star Trek film by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Mission: Impossible III, Super 8) and the twelfth in the history of the series. In the 1960s, the television series of Star Trek opened with these words, bursting with adventurous promise. And yet, I would not have ended the film with them. For if there is one thing J.J. Abrams does not do, it is boldly going where no man has gone before. Star Trek Into Darkness is one of the better blockbusters showing at the moment. The pace is fast. The action scenes are among the better of their type and the variation between the action and more intimate moments or between the immensity of the universe and the small space between two people is masterful. We are entertained. But the film does not explore any new territory. Captain Kirk and Spock have a quarrel to patch up. Benedict Cumberbatch lends his deep bass and dispassionate face to the requisite baddy. There is no sign of the darkness promised by the title and suggested by the trailer. There is a bomb attack in London by a spaceship that turns skyscrapers into piles of rubble, not unlike those on that accursed eleventh September 2001 in New York.

The film then trots out some feelings of revenge and the abuse of the terrorist threat to develop extreme weapons and start a war. Nothing sticks, however, and the last half hour really tests our ability to suspend disbelief. Strikingly, after his well-received relaunch of the washed-up franchise, J.J. Abrams has now sought to reconnect to the mythology. And not just in nods, winks and homages; whole sections of a thirty-year-old Star Trek film are beamed up from the past.

Star Trek Into Darkness ●●
US, 2013, dir.: J.J. Abrams, act.: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, 129 min.