A Touch of Benedict Arnold
When the crew of the USS Enterprise are ordered home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving the planet in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine - Hell or High Water) leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction. As the crew are propelled into an epic game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be tested, and sacrifices must be made.
Let me start by telling you that right from the opening scene, and we hear the modern take on the theme tune, "Star Trek: Into Darkness" works. Here is a movie which gives the audience everything they want from a storyline which has twists and turns to spectacular special effect driven scenes, a scene where the Enterprise emerges from under the ocean is stunning and in fact one of the movie's best visual scenes. On top of that we have characters who evolve, humour and of course plenty of action. There is even a scene where Alice Eve's character strips to her underwear, a scene which some screamed sexism yet for me was anything but as her character dominates and controls Captain Kirk.
But here is the thing about "Star Trek: Into Darkness", some times less is more and this is a movie with many a scene which, whilst contributing to an evolving storyline, take up more time than is necessary. It almost feels like before this movie started they had a list of what percentage of time each aspect needed to take up to maintain a balance. As such there are action scenes which for me go on longer than needed and that might be because an extra moment of humour was added. It is a shame as for me all the ingredients work and are balanced yet there is a sense of excess about them.
What this all boils down to is that "Star Trek: Into Darkness" is a good movie, a fan pleaser which delivers everything that mainstream movie lovers would want from a blockbuster. But for me that desire to balance all the elements has caused some scenes which end up feeling bloated.
