Trekkin' 2

If J.J. Abrams could can it with the lens flares and have his screenwriters conceive of the distances in space a little more realistically, he would probably be able to make a close-to-perfect Star Trek movie. As it is, with Star Trek Into Darkness, his second entry into the venerable franchise, he has made a darn good one.

The pluses from his first movie are still here: Zachary Quinto makes a first-class Spock, and brings his own acting skill to the role when needed. Karl Urban makes Dr. McCoy what he's supposed to be, the cranky conscience of the Enterprise story.

In Darkness, though, Abrams gets added help from Chris Pine in playing a James Kirk who is learning a great deal about what being a captain means -- and it's not always, "I get to do this however I want 'cause I am Jimmy T. Flippin' Kirk." The first film's view of Kirk as a broody Troubled Rebel brought out some of the weakest points of Pine's casting; namely his 90210/Dawson's Creek appearance and style. With him established as a ship's captain, that dimension of the character fades mostly into the background.

Darkness also gets more use out of Simon Pegg as Scotty, giving him some pivotal plot points, and also adds some dimension to Zoe Saldana's Uhura, allowing her to kick some tail in a way Nichelle Nichols probably would have loved to do.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the villain of the movie, a man willing to commit terrorist acts in order to achieve his ends and willing to use any means or persons in order to do so. I read one review of the movie that said the script and story don't really let him take his place as one of the great "Star Trek villains," but given the circumstances of the movie and the story that's actually a good choice. Into Darkness sets up the well-known "five-year mission" of the original television series, offering Abrams and company a chance to continue reducing their use of touchstones from the original series and strike out on their own.

It's by no means perfect -- the aforementioned lens flares and stupidly compressed distances are a problem, and we have a Klingon interlude for just about no reason whatsoever. But Darkness keeps the Enterprise sailing true and keeps us interested in what may happen next.