Star Trek Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams, 2013) Review

Yes this is a very late review but I was debating between 2 films for this weekend's review...and then I saw a third film that was relevant so I'm reviewing that on instead (those other two will be reviewed eventually). Now, if you have seen my review of Star Trek, you may know my thoughts on it were summed up with "it was okay" so naturally I wasn't that hyped for a sequel. Should I have been or was I right to almost pass this by? Let's find out.

The crew of the Starship Enterprise are called home after an almost botched mission, leaving Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) demoted under Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Things get worse, however, when ex-star fleet pilot John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) attacks the HQ lead Kirk into a revenge mission against John. Now under the rules of Captain Marcus (Peter Weller), Kirk and his crew now seek out John and finish him off.

This! Right here! This is what you call a progressive sequel. I didn't care that much for the first film but my God is this a good film! It sacrifices the boring planetary scenes to make way for more character driven scenes which is where the film really shines. I didn't care for Zachary Quinto's performance as Spock in the first film but he really puts in the effort in this one and it shows. He, Benedict Cumberbatch and even Simon Pegg as Scotty really provide some powerful performances. The writing is well put together and the direction  of J.J. Abrams makes me realise how good he is as his job.

I guess if I had to nitpick, the overuse of the lens flare (I swear, it's in every single scene) and there were a few times that the film went in a direction that I didn't really want it to but it certainly came to an excellent conclusion that is sure to please long time Star Trek fans. There are some funny moments, shocking moments, tear jerker moments and some truly awesome moments. It's quality stuff all around.

Star Trek Into Darkness was a nice surprise that I didn't expect to not only be better than the original but surpasses it by more than a mile. The acting is improved so much, the narrative is actually engaging this time, there are new characters that actually are relevant to the plot and the balance of character driven scenes and sci-fi action is well done. J.J. Abrams has officially past the test and is now allowed to do Star Wars Episode VII if it's anything like this.

Verdict:
9/10
The very defintion of a progressive sequel. It expands of everything from the first and proves to be some of Abram's best stuff.