Above: Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) – Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) ©2013 Paramount Pictures
So does Star Trek Into Darkness continue the tradition of even number films being the better Star Trek films?.
With JJ Abrams first film Star Trek, a few years back, being so good it seems like maybe not quite…
The Sydney Morning Herald Star Trek Into Darkness review
Star Trek into Darkness is an impressive science-fiction adventure with strong storytelling fundamentals, engrossing visual detail and a sharp political edge. Trekkies will be setting their phasers to stunned.
[Rating: 5 star] From our reading of the review
Daily Telegraph (UK) Star Trek Into Darkness review
A large portion of Star Trek’s audience may well be satisfied by a film that amounts to not much more than an incredibly pretty and sporadically funny in-joke. But think back to the corny romance of that original mission statement, recited by William Shatner on many a rainy school night. Strange new worlds. New life. New civilisations. Boldly going where no man has gone before. That pioneer spirit? It’s gone.
[Rating: 3 star] From our reading of the review
The Guardian (UK) Star Trek Into Darkness review
There’s consequently a palpable air of world-weariness about this Star Trek; it’s as if Abrams and his writers concluded they couldn’t replicate the cockiness and bounce of the first film, and opted instead to allow their characters to grow up a little.
[Rating: 4 star] From our reading of the review
The Hollywood Reporter Star Trek Into Darkness review
The returning actors all fit their roles with absolute comfort, while the deep-voiced Cumberbatch asserts fully self-justified treachery and Weller and Eve nicely essay equivocal characters. But after impressing well enough in his previous big-screen directorial outings, Abrams works in a narrower, less imaginative mode here; there’s little sense of style, no grace notes or flights of imagination.
[Rating: 4 star] From our reading of the review
Empire Magazine (UK) Star Trek Into Darkness review
Not all of it works — compared to the opener, the last-reel action is enjoyable rather than jaw-dropping — but there is the sense of a true showman at work. Like Lucas, Abrams doesn’t care about science-fiction, cold fusion thingamys and transwarp doodahs. He just wants you to have as much as fun as humanly possible.
[Rating: 4 star]
Our overall view based on these reviews is: [Rating: 4 star].
