The problem with Star Trek Into Darkness is that it just sort of... exists. The sequel to the well-received 2009 franchise reboot doesn't progress the characters or overall story any farther than it was at the end of the first one. Kirk and Spock are enemies, then friends by the end of the previous instalment. Yet not ten minutes into the second are they at each others throats again, and the dynamic feels trite - not least of all because these characters have been antagonising each other in other mediums for decades, let alone the fact that we had seen the same arguments play out between the two, four years prior. It is to that effect that Into Darkness feels like a beige retread of the beats from the first movie; we see Kirk without his captaincy in both, and the ending to each is even the same. At the end of STID, the beloved crew head out on their five-year mission for the second time in the big screen franchise. Fans can effectively go straight from the first film, skip this one and into next year's Star Trek Beyond without missing a thing. Whilst the story for Into Darkness was rote, the action sequences were among the best 2013 had to offer, and it remains a solid blockbuster when stood apart from everything else. However, as a sequel to a great franchise reboot, it unfortunately squandered its potential.
Cinephile since 1993, aged 4, when he saw his very first film in the cinema - Jurassic Park - which is also evidence of damn fine parenting. World champion at Six Degrees of Separation. Lender of DVDs to cheap mates. Connoisseur of Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe.
