Cinema Babble: Whoa!

The Flick: Star Trek: Into Darkness

The Peeps: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto,  Zoe Soldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, etc, etc (etc).

The Dealio: Starting right off with a bang, Kirk and (extremely unintentionally), Spock, violate the primary directive during what is supposed to be just a fact-finding mission. Thus begins a nearly unstoppable action-packed sequel to the Star Trek reboot. Authentic to the brand, with all the gates and touchstones that make Star Trek a legend, even among- or maybe especially among?- those who never saw the TV original, STID flings itself headlong into a perilous and misbegotten series of adventures. Once again, Klingons figure as the main baddies, but there is much more going on here than that. The  addition of Cumerbatch as Khan ratchets up the intensity- but also the involvement of the audience- as he slings himself around the universe, seemingly super-powered and indestructible. A scene where Kirk punches him is classic: both amusing and horrifying at the same time. Everyone has his/her chance to sell it, and most do a really great job. Underutilised is Soldana's Uhuru, though and I do wish that Urban got to do more than offer the occasional snarky punchline. But, I quibble. This is a good and faithful, referential and respectable addition to the Star Trek canon.

The Grading Session: 4.871 pengies out of 5, for the above-mentioned reasons. And, yes, I am looking forward to others in the line-up. As always, your mileage may differ.

Lessons Learned: If a character walks, talks and acts like a duck, then that person, most def, is a baddie. Um, duck. And, then, too, even Vulcans can make, break and save friends and friendships. It just doesn't look like what we are used to seeing in these instances. Lastly this: what would you do, if you could  put yourself into the place of your friend, and act as he or she would have acted in the same circumstances? I am dizzy just thinking about thinking about this! But the results might be really epic. Discuss amongst yourselves.