I wouldn't stay up late to watch the reruns and I had no interest in the sequels such as Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Nemesis etc.
I did enjoy the first 'modern' movie remake of 'Star Trek' starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and the hunky but evil Eric Bana. (I enjoyed that movie so much that it became one of my favs on DVD; I pull it out every couple of months for a viewing.)
I was super hopeful that the latest addition to the Star Trek stable 'Into Darkness' would be of the same calibre.
Poster from Wikipedia
It was; although this offering is more violent and blood thirsty and, for true Trek-ys, the lack of development of some of the characters will be unsatisfying.
It had a love story (Uhura and Spock .... ahhhhhh) (their lovers tiff is a wonderful bit of scripting, and a bit of a tear jerker too). I loved that we got to know the human side of Spock in greater detail.
Kirk was still a lad-about-town with the women, willing to brawl with anyone - but this movie saw his 'coming of age' as a starship Captain. (Bad boy makes good).
There was a not so subtle reference to Chariots of the Gods through a primitive tribe on an island with a volcano ready to erupt.
Karl Urban's 'Bones' delighted with his colloquial 'euphemisms' for everything (and Kirks comment about 'why can't you just say what you mean'?).
Simon Peggs 'Scotty' stole the show for me with just about every line - just wonderful.
I would have liked to see more of Anton Yelchins 'Chekov' - a wonderful character from the first installment, and John Cho's 'Sulu', who only had a minor role in this movie.
The low was the introduction of a new character; Dr. Carol Marcus played by Alice Eve. It felt like her character was added to help smooth out rough spots in the script; her role was otherwise superfluous. Especially unbelievable was her reaction to a family members betrayal (the characters, not the actresses).
Apart from Spock, and to a point Kirk and Scotty, the other characters were fairly one dimensional in a movie that starred action and violence. My attraction to the first movie was the development of the characters personalities and motivations for becoming star fleet-ers.
The friend I went with is not a Trek-y at all, having never seen the original (or any) series. She had had trouble following the story in the first movie.
However, she giggled her way through Into Darkness, rode the roller coaster of special effects and enjoyed this movie immensely.
I would recommend 'Into Darkness' to both Trek-ys and non Trek-ys, for an awesome visual sensation (I viewed 'Into Darkness' in 2D, as I get a bit motion sick with the 3D. 2D had plenty of effects; I am not sure how much 3D would have added to the experience).
I hope that the third installment (fingers crossed ... I am ready for more) has more empathy with characterisation and deals more with the 'exploration of the Universe', as Kirk pledges in his concluding Captains oath.
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