Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

"Space. The Final Frontier". Never has four words been so iconic, the second these words have finished someone will continue with that speech. Then again Star Trek is one of the most famous franchises out there. As we all know the franchise got rebooted...sort of, with the successful 2009 film and now comes the sequel.

The Federation comes under attack from a rogue agent, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Fleet Admiral Marcus (Peter Welles) orders Kirk (Chris Pine) to take his crew on the USS Enterprise to chase him down.

That's probably all I can say with spoiling it.

As the title suggests the film is a lot darker than it's predecessor. It explores love, lost, sacrifice, deception, consequences, courage, it blends all of this into a fantastic piece of storytelling, as well as putting in some humour, some brilliant action scenes and some unexpected surprises. It successfully grabs your attention, it draws you in.

The characters are all still exceptional, in particular Harrison who is a much more tragic villain than he is originally made out to be. But that doesn't stop him from being one of the most cold and calculating villains to ever grace the silver screen. That's actually what I love to see more in villains, not that they're strong, cruel, sadistic, but their intelligence.

Meanwhile we see a more vulnerable Spock (Zachary Quinto), a more developed role for Scotty (Simon Pegg), and a more vengeful Kirk. In all honesty I felt Uhura (Zoe Saldana) was underused, and I'm not particularly a big fan of Saldana's. Don't get me wrong, I think she's good, not great. In fact now that I think about it we see a...trying to think of the right word here, a more desperate side of all the characters, and even from minor supporting characters.

But that's really all down to the acting. Saldana, as I said, I think she's more good than great, but in her role as Uhura I actually like her, it's just a shame she isn't really that developed. Everyone else though is superb, particularly Quinto towards the end and, of course, Cumberbatch who, at times, dominated the scenes. As mentioned even supporting cast members were brilliant, like Peter Welles, Bruce Greenwood as Admiral Pike, and Alice Eve as Doctor Sexy. I mean, as Carol Marcus.

The effects are superb, from space battles to on foot battles to the ships themselves. You know how I feel about CGI, so, like I mentioned in my 'Avengers' review, if I actually loved CGI effects then they are more than perfect. In fact I'd probably say that the effects in '...Into Darkness' are better than those in the 'Avengers'. Hell, the landscapes look spectacular. Every single effect looks physically real, it looks genuine, it looks superb. And then there's the make-up which was astounding, especially concerning alien races.

Let's just get down to it, this film is awesome. The acting is terrific, it has a storytelling masterpiece, the effects are outstanding, it's basically an awesome movie, and is a top contender for best film of 2013. If you haven't seen it yet, go and do so.