As I raise my fist and scream, “Abraaaaaaaaams!” Or my review of Star Trek: Into Darkness ***1/2

I remember oh so long ago in another life, Letterman actually had a The Shinning which has JUST been released( I wonder if he's ever revised his opinion in hindsight?) Anyway he said he thought Kubrick handled it like a grenade that he had to throw himself on to protect everyone else. SO!!! This long round about intro is to say sometimes I feel ol' J.J. is doing the same with the new Star Trek franchise.  Even though I enjoyed the film immensely, sometimes I actually think he's saying to the original Star Trek  fans, "This in mine now! AhHaHahaHA!!"

morning show, that I would actually drag my teenage-self out of bed for, (Obviously for the reason's I just pointed out... it failed and a Late Night version later succeeded) ANYWAY! I remember one of his guests in those early days, was Stephen King, and Dave asked him what he thought of Kubrick's 

Okay I’m going to say right here: ****spoiler alert!****,but I assume the fact it’s been out awhile won’t prevent you from reading this because talking about the specifics of what Abrams does to the Star Trek timeline is mainly what kept me from enjoying this film to it’s full extent. Now I did go back a see this movie a second time in 3D and I must admit I was a bit more forgiving without my original Star Trek expectations and thus disappointments. The idea of having a story line that neatly hooks up to where the story began in the original series was completely thrown out the window in Abrams first Star Trek movie. By having time-travel change the timeline with things like... oh I don’t know... say blowing up the entire planet Vulcan?!? The idea that you were going to have Captain Pike and Captain Kirk changing of hands that happened in the pilot and first episodes was not going to happen in these movies. I mean if stepping on a butterfly in the past can cause the entire future change, imagine what wiping out a planet can do.

In fact, in my second viewing is were I caught the fact that it was the destruction of Vulcan that caused them to find  Khan and his crew years before their “five year mission” was to have begun. And the spoiler? Yes Benedict Cumberbatch is suppose to be Khan of Ricardo Montalban fame for the series and Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. So they kill off Captain Pike,which I suppose is better than his original fate of ending up a burnt paraplegic in chair with a blinking light to communicate, but they don’t want to find a young Latino actor just to keep the surprise reveal? A reveal really makes no sense? They painstakingly have a great cast of younger versions of the whole crew who are back from the first movie with particularly fun turns by Simon Pegg as Scotty and Anton Yelchin as Chekov, but what about Vulcan being destroyed turned the Latino Khan into a British accented villain?

However brilliantly portrayed?

From "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

And then there's the “twist” where Kirk and Spock change places behind the glass of the radiated section, and Spock screams “Khaaaaan!”instead of the iconic yet much maligned William Shatner/Kirk scream from Star Trek II. Again, in the second viewing, I started thinking of how it’s almost a time-travel/alternate universe convention that sometimes there’s just subtle difference that can change things yet they’re almost the same. A goatee or an eye patch will be on the alternate person, or this person in now in charge and the other person is his subordinate instead etc.. but that's me being extremely forgiving, when deep down it's more like I first said Abrams just want to say, “This is mine now, the TV series and Movie stories are mine to toy with too!” The fact he now has the reigns of Star Wars has me VERY concerned about how much one man can have over my Science Fiction universe!

Anyway! ALL THAT ASIDE! The action, the effects, the story of this movie makes it very enjoyable to watch. And I might add the 3D viewing with the red leaves, spear throwing in your face opening to the space debris space suit flight did make it a slightly more enjoyable experience than seeing just the 2D version.So Overall, as a stand alone film, or at least a stand alone series is very enjoyable. And speaking of this particular series I forget,but I assume Zachary Quinto/Spock and Zoe Saldana/Uhura were suppose to be an item in the first movie? It does bring an interesting dynamic of balancing emotions and lack of emotions that Zarachy really does have fun with. And this ‘balance’ really effectively extends with Chris Pine as Kirk. I guess the Vulcan destruction also wiped out the seven year cycles Vulcans were suppose to have in romantic interests? Well there I go again trying to apply the rules of the television series to the new movies.

So again, to wrap up…. aside from my reservations, this movie does deliver on great space scenes, good action, excellent villains, including some almost cameo Klingons, and a cast having some real fun with re-imagining characters that have become mainstays in the Science Fiction culture. Anytime you have a movie where actors like Karl Urban as ‘Bones’ McCoy have fun with “Dammit Jim…” and other Star Trek classics, you have a winner.