Four years ago, the Star Trek franchise boldly went in a different direction by doing something unexpected; going all the way back to the beginning.  In the plainly titled Star Trek (2009), audiences were treated to a surprisingly effective reboot of the series featuring the original, iconic characters.  The reboot was a huge risk, given the backlash that could have come from the hardcore Trekkie fanbase, but the end result proved to be a resounding success, becoming the highest grossing Trek film ever.  I believe that a large part of the film’s success came from the unconventional choice of a director; in this case, famed TV Writer/Producer J.J. Abrams.  Abrams had only directed one film prior (the underwhelming Mission: Impossible 3) and had stated that he was never much of a Trek fan before taking the job.  This proved to be a good thing for the making of Star Trek, because Abrams set out to make a film that he would want to watch, broadening the appeal of the series beyond its fanbase.

This is why I liked the reboot so much because like Abrams, I was never much of a Trek fan myself.  Star Trek was a movie that finally helped me to understand why this series has been a fanboys’ and girls’ dream all these years, and I was incredibly pleased to finally see a big budget movie that put emphasis back on the characters and plot rather than in the special effects.  I particularly loved the casting in the film, as far as finding actors who could embody these characters without trying to mimic the original actors’ performances.  Of course, given the movie’s enormous success, a sequel had to happen.  After a long wait, the much-anticipated follow-up has come.  Star Trek Into Darkness, picks things up right where the previous film left off and returns the entire cast and crew, along with J.J. Abrams back in the directors chair.  A lot of hype has surrounded this film, given the strong reception of its predecessor, and I was certainly among those hoping to see a great follow up.  Thankfully, this sequel is no let-down.

I can’t really go far into detail in the plot without revealing a few spoilers.  Basically it follows Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise as they track down a mysterious terrorist named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), who has struck the very heart of Starfleet, murdering many high-command officers in the process.  Kirk is given charge to hunt Harrison down and kill him without mercy, an order the vengeful captain gladly accepts.  Despite protests from his crew, including Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Scotty (Simon Pegg), Kirk finds Harrison hiding out on Kronos, the Klingon home planet, which is un-friendly ground for defenders of the Federation.  After a confrontation, in which Harrison single-handedly takes on a whole army of Klingons, he and Kirk finally meet, and this is where the mystery starts to unfold.  The remainder of the story is full of revealed secrets that both pay homage to past Trek lore, while at the same building a solid mystery at the center of the film’s plot.

Without spoiling a lot, suffice to say, the story holds up very well.  This is an excellent follow up to the previous film; staying true to what’s been done before, while at the same time taking big risks and pushing the series further.  One big difference is the size and scope of the movie.  J.J. Abrams gives Into Darkness a much more epic feel than the previous film.  The action set pieces are incredibly ambitious and will have most audiences on the edge of their seats.  At the same time, the film still manages to keep its focus on the characters in the story, another excellent carry-over from the previous installment.  I’m still very impressed with the actors playing the crew of the Enterprise.  Zachary Quinto manages to hold his own as Spock, even when sharing the screen with the original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy.  Chris Pine still pulls off any amazing feat of playing James T. Kirk without ever slipping into any Shatner-isms.  The film also features a lot more of Simon Pegg as Scotty, which is always a good thing.  In fact, every iconic character gets a good moment in this movie; even Chekov (just watch his reaction when he’s told to put on a red shirt).

However, the standout here is definitely the villain.  Benedict Cumberbatch delivers an astounding performance as John Harrison; a man who is much more than he seems.  There is a big reveal half-way through the film about his character that could’ve easily been done poorly if played by the wrong actor.  Thankfully Cumberbatch sells it perfectly and is able to make the character work well enough as the film’s antagonist, even setting aside where he fits within the Trek universe.  The performance is so nuanced and memorable, that it really doesn’t matter who John Harrison really is in the end.  He could be named anybody else, and the character as he is in the film would’ve still made a memorable villain.  I’m hoping that this movie gives Benedict Cumberbatch a good career boost.  If you haven’t seen his work on the BBC’s Sherlock, I highly recommend you do.  He’s a very talented actor, and I’m happy to see him utilized so well in this film.

Unfortunately, the movie is not without some flaws.  In particular, it has a very lackluster final act.  Without going into too much detail, I will only say that the film oddly loses some of its focus in the last 30 minutes or so and starts to rely too heavily on plot conveniences and action film cliches.  One of the things that these movies have done so well is pay homage to the original Trek films and series with several well placed references.  For the most part, the references are well handled here, until the later part of the movie, when they start to become very heavy-handed.  One scene in particular is almost lifted entirely from an previous film, and it will probably rub some die-hard Trekkies the wrong way.  Not only that, but the final confrontation with the villain is kind of a letdown, given how the rest of the film has been leading up to it.  The especially problematic part is that it leads to some out-of-character decisions made by the good guys, many of which don’t make that much sense.  All of this creates a remarkably messy finale, which is not made better by a very rushed ending.

This doesn’t mean that it ruins the movie as a whole.  I very much liked 2/3 of it, and I would still strongly recommend it to everyone.  Most things are done right and I definitely think it’s a worthy follow-up to the previous film.  The last 30 minutes of the movie does make it a lesser film, however, and I’m puzzled as to why J.J. Abrams and his writers decided to go in the direction that they did in the final act.  They had done such a nice job with the previous 90 minutes, so what happened?  It seemed that either Abrams was under a lot of pressure to fulfill audience expectations or he just didn’t know how to make old familiar tropes feel authentically in place in his story-line.  Whatever happened, the movie still works.  He may have stumbled over the line, but Abrams was still able to finish the race.

This also marks J.J. Abrams final outing as the standard-bearer of the Star Trek franchise.  In 2015, Abrams will take over the reigns of the Star Wars franchise, crossing a bridge between two beloved galaxies that no one ever thought could be crossed.  Into Darkness does end with the promise of more adventures to come, and I definitely would love to see more, especially if they keep this cast intact.  That ultimately is the best thing about this particular film; it left me wanting more in the end.  Despite its flaws, Star Trek Into Darkness is an enormous crowdpleaser, and it should be embraced by all audiences, Trekkie or no.  I look forward to seeing more adventures with the crew of the Enterprise in the future, because after seeing how well the door’s been opened to new possibilities by Mr. Abrams, the sky really is the limit.

Rating: 8/10

Another summer, another Marvel blockbuster.  Marvel has been on a roll lately with their franchise characters.  Now under the big Disney tent, the publisher is able to benefit from a large studio backing, as well as a high-profile marketing campaign.  This worked spectacularly well with The Avengers, a record shattering blockbuster that not only reached a diverse audience, but was also pleasing to the fans of the comics who hold these superheros in high regard.  The Avengers was also the culmination of a multi-film strategy to build a franchise around characters who exist within the same universe, apart from their own respective movies.  This was know as the “Avengers Initiative” Phase 1, which kicked off with the first Iron Man (2008), and continued on through films like Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011).  Each film did the job of establishing each character’s own story lines, while at the same time, alluding to their eventual team-up in The Avengers.   But now that the first Avengers has come and gone, Marvel is gearing up Phase 2, which will lead to the eventual sequel to last year’s film, and once again, Iron Man is the one who’ll set things in motion.  Is it a worthy successor to what’s come before, or does it collapse underneath it’s high expectations?  Unfortunately it’s a little more of the latter.

Iron Man 3 takes place post-Avengers, rather than following up the plot of Iron Man 2, so this might cause some confusion for those who haven’t seen The Avengers; which I’m sure is very few.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) deals in this film with some of the post traumatic anxiety that he developed after his near death experience in The Avengers, as well as the current threat he faces when a new terrorist threat named The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) shows up.  The Mandarin sets off a bomb in Hollywood, leaving Tony’s chauffeur and friend Happy Hogan (former Iron Man director Jon Favreau) in a coma.  This leads to Tony making a personal threat towards the terrorist, who then goes after Mr. Stark and destroys his home, while Tony and his assistant/lover (Gwyneth Paltrow) are still in there.  Tony looses almost all of his armor, and escapes with only what he’s got on his back.

The rest of the film involves Tony tracking down The Mandarin’s base of operations, where he finds the group experimenting in a new scientific breakthrough called Extremis, which makes its human subjects gain healing powers that turn them invincible, as well as super heat-conductive.  The scientist behind the Extremis procedure, Dr. Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is creating an army for the Mandarin with the intent of attacking the president and taking over the government.  As Tony delves deeper into the mystery, he discovers that there is more to the proceedings than meets the eye, and that he’ll have to rely on his intelligence even more than his metal suit in order to survive.

One thing that I did like in this film overall was Robert Downey Jr.’s performance.  The guy is Tony Stark.  Nobody owns a character like he does, and he doesn’t disappoint here.  There are plenty of one-liners that will have everyone chuckling in the theaters; including probably the best A Christmas Story reference ever.  He also works well with his co-stars in the movie, particularly with Paltrow and Don Cheadle (as the Iron Patriot).  One other thing that makes Downey’s performance so good is how he deals with the addition of a child sidekick in the movie.  In the middle of the film, Tony Stark has to rely upon the help of a pre-teen boy mechanic to get back on his feet.  Adding a child character is usually the kiss of death for an action movie like this, as it could turn the film cute and sentimental, but here it’s handled well with clever writing and unsentimental performances.  It’s to Downey’s credit that he can make something like that work, and his best lines in the movie comes from his interactions with the kid.

The main problem that I had with this movie is the fact that it lacks the kind of focus that the other Iron Man films have had.  Iron Man 3 suffers from the same problem found in Spiderman 3.  In that film, the filmmakers tried to please too many of the audience’s expectations by cramming things together into one movie that don’t belong together at all, and would’ve worked better if given separate narratives.  In Spiderman 3, we were promised the inclusion of fan favorite villain Venom, only to see his inclusion shuffled to the final 20 minutes, with a watered-down and corny characterization that just ruined the character.  In Iron Man 3, the film does better at mixing it’s elements together, but it’s still awkward and disappointing.

First of all, the thing that disappointed me the most and will probably anger a lot of fans as well is how the Mandarin is used in the movie.  I haven’t read the comics, but I’ve come to understand that overall, The Mandarin is Iron Man’s arch-nemesis; much like what Lex Luthor is to Superman.  In the early scenes, Sir Ben Kingsley does an effective job of portraying the Mandarin as a sadistic, Bin Laden-esque super-terrorist; playing the role both menacingly and with charisma.  I was hoping to see what would happen once the hero would meet his ultimate foe later in the film; and then the movie suddenly throws a twist at us that changes everything.  I’m not going to spoil what happens, but suffice to say this is where audiences are going to break apart on this film.   The audience I was with had that kind of reaction; half enjoyed the change and loved Sir Ben’s performance, while the other half started hanging their heads low and tried not to watch.  For me, it took a character with a lot of potential and ruined it in almost an instant.  I don’t blame the actor so much as the writer/director Shane Black, who seemed to want to shake things up when he didn’t really need to, and the result unfortunately messed up what was starting to be a good thing.

The other problem I had was the use of the Extremis plot in the film.  This is another element from the comics that they wanted to bring to the screen, but it just doesn’t feel like it fits as well as it should have.  For one thing, we the audience are supposed to eat up a lot of information on what Extremis is, which the movie doesn’t really give us a chance to.  Exposition is dumped pretty clumsily, as if director Black got bored with it while writing it into a scene.  We get a basic understanding of what Extremis does, but the science behind it remains fuzzy, which makes it feel more like a plot gimmick rather than an actual threat to the characters.  By the end, I didn’t know whether or not any of the Extremis-enhanced characters were vulnerable, or could be killed, which made the climax a little confusing.  Again, this could have been done better if they had devoted an entire film’s plot to the Extremis storyline, and not try to combine it awkwardly with the Mandarin storyline.

To me it seemed like the filmmakers wanted to have their cake and eat it too.  But the cake is only sweet if the ingredients are mixed well together.  Unfortunately, Iron Man 3 undelivered on what it promised and that’s a shame.  I like Shane Black’s work; from the Lethal Weapon scripts to his first film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005).  But unfortunately, I can only see this film as a missed opportunity, especially when it comes to The Mandarin; a character who could have become one of the all time great villains if given the focus he needed.  That being said, Iron Man 3 is not a complete failure; just a disappointment.  I did like Robert Downey Jr., as well as a lot of the clever and funny dialogue.  Some of the action scenes are also very well executed, like when Iron Man has to save a bunch of people falling out of the sky from a crippled airplane.  I’m sure that many people are going to like the movie regardless of my reservations, and I’ll say that watching Robert Downey in his element is worth the price of admission.  I just wish this film could have delivered better on what it promised and didn’t try to be too many things all at once.  The other Iron Man films managed to do that, as well as The Avengers.  I just hope that “Avengers” Phase 2 is able to pick up from its shaky start.

Rating: 6/10