I am not a Trekkie. I never watched the original series. I’ve only caught glimpses of Next Generation. And I didn’t even see the 1980s Star Trek films until only a few years ago. Of all the things I’m geeky about, Star Trek simply isn’t one of them. So keep that in mind when I tell you that Star Trek Into Darkness is a phenomenally exciting film, with some of the best characters and action since The Avengers. This is how you make an action movie. In space.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a wonderfully entertaining movie from beginning to end. It takes some of the coolest characters in sci fi history and puts them into harrowing, twisting scenes full of action, energy and, most importantly, heart. Because an action movie without heart is just Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. And nobody wants that.

Movie Rating: 5/5 – Great.

The best way to describe the new Star Trek franchise is that it’s definitely a 21st century action movie, but one told using beloved characters and iconic sci-fi history to better enrich the experience. The action is fast-paced, the editing is rapidly cut, and there’s an emphasis on camera movement and angles. There are explosions and there is gunfire, but those are no longer the biggest draw of an action movie. Instead, Star Trek Into Darkness is mostly about the characters, and the extreme action and big set pieces that they find themselves in. I love the movie for that.

Like I said, I’m not a Trekkie, but Star Trek is so infused in our pop culture that even I love seeing Kirk and Spock kicking ass and exchanging vows of friendship. I love seeing Scotty use his engineering know-how to save the day. I love seeing Klingons show up in the movie, just because I know what it means to have Klingons hanging around. And I love the reveal of the villain, and how his true identity makes him just that much more evil and fascinating than if he’d been just an original character.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a fantastic sequel, easily expanding upon and surpassing the first Star Trek from 2009. It takes the iconic characters we met in the first film and puts them into a bigger, badder adventure, while simultaneously growing them as people and as heroes. And possibly most important of all, Star Trek Into Darkness embraces its beloved fandom. This is not a movie that shies away from it’s geeky roots. Heck, there’s a tribble in this movie, for crying out loud!

Join me after the jump for my full review. There will be some SPOILERS here and there, but I’ll try to avoid spoiling some of the big stuff. If you want to remain completely unspoiled, then read the rest of my review only after you’ve seen the movie. Because right now, I really, really want to talk about Star Trek!

The strongest thing Star Trek Into Darkness has going for it is the cast – as if I haven’t said that enough. These characters stretch back decades into pop culture lore, with the likes of Captain Kirk, Spock and Scotty heralded as cultural icons. So it’s just cool to see them transformed into modern-day action stars, fighting tooth and nail to save the universe from great evil. All of the cast from the first film are back, bridging the two movies and the characters’ ongoing stories. Not everyone gets as big a role as everyone else – I’m looking at you, Sulu – but the movie makes much better use of all the characters this time around. Scotty even gets his own long subplot, which I loved, because I’m a huge Simon Pegg fan.

There are cool spaceships in the movie too!

If you enjoyed the characters in the first film, you’ll love them even more this time around. They all seem to grow a little bit more, especially Kirk and Spock, and most of them get a moment or two to really shine. Chekhov takes on new responsibilities, Uhura gets to strut her stuff against the Klingons, Bones gets all the best curmudgeony lines, Kirk learns a few lessons in leadership and sacrifice, and Spock turns out to be the movie’s big action hero (with a little help from Uhura). The cast is top notch, with fine work done by all of the actors, especially Zachary Quinto as Spock. He really steps up. And being so invested in the characters enhances the action scenes even more, which any great action movie should hope for.

All great action movies should also hope to get a smile this handsome on screen

At the start of the film, the reckless Captain James T. Kirk loses command of the Starship Enterprise because he flagrantly disobeys the rules of Starfleet Command. This should be no surprise, considering he was promoted from  failing cadet to ship’s captain in the span of maybe 12 hours during the first film. The action and strong characters kick off from the very first frame as the crew have to save an alien civilization from a planet-destroying volcano, and then Kirk gets reprimanded for disobeying the Prime Directive. Starfleet doesn’t take too kindly to that sort of thing. And even the scenes of Kirk and Spock hanging around Starfleet HQ don’t get boring, with a lot of great scenes of Kirk struggling with Starfleet command.

Kirk’s demotion is quickly reversed, however, after madman John Harrison attacks a secret Starfleet base in the middle of London. It seems there’s a war brewing between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire, and Harrison seems hellbent on kicking it off prematurely. Kirk and the Enterprise are tasked with hunting Harrison down and killing him – but, of course, there is a lot more going on than Kirk and his crew could possibly expect. I’ll leave the twists for you to find out.

Major kudos have to go to actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of John Harrison. The man is positively wicked. Whatever make-up tricks they used work wonders, giving him an alien sort of look while still, clearly, being human. And Cumberbatch goes over the top with his dialogue, his voice  aching over every word so that every monologue this character gives is positively crushing.

The wall helps keep the studly factor from overloading

I’m not going to spoil who Cumberbatch really is, but I will say that all those months of speculation were totally worth it. I completely bought into the studio’s explanation that Cumberbatch was simply a new villain named John Harrison. I was fine with that. And I believed it all the way up to the dramatic scene where he reveals that ‘Harrison’ is just a cover identity. In that second, I knew who he was, as all science fiction fans will be able to guess. I knew it before he said the name, and I felt charged. I felt energized for that split second before he finally says his real name, filling his voice with such venom that the entire rest of the film is shaped around that one moment. Because knowing who he really is, knowing that Cumberbatch is playing that character, changes everything. We all know the character, we all know what he means to Star Trek lore and pop culture in general, and everything else he does in the movie is shaded by that knowledge, especially the scenes where Cumberbatch teams up with Captain Kirk. Just knowing who the character is makes for a better movie.

And it’s a great movie overall. It opens with a beautiful, colorful world and a mission to stop a volcano. Then it doesn’t let up through scene after scene, with the characters never losing their dynamism and the action never losing its spark. I especially enjoyed the scene on the Klingon homeworld, giving those aliens a real sense of menace while creating a truly alien world. I wish we’d seen more of them.

Maybe in the threequel?

There are a lot of tense stand-offs, which I like, and a lot of really human character moments. Spock and Uhura have a fun scene arguing about their relationship in the middle of a mission, with Kirk caught in the middle. And later, Kirk opens up to Uhura in a scene that really fleshes out the friendship between all of them. The crew really does feel like a close knit group. Their banter is delightful. When the action picks up racing towards the climax, it really picks up. There’s a fantastic human torpedo scene coupled with a comedic Scotty scene that just gets better and better, and it’s followed by Kirk, Scotty and Cumberbatch infiltrating an enemy stronghold. Scotty with a phaser in hand fighting alongside Kirk and Cumberbatch is just plain cool.

Did someone say ‘breakout star’?

The movie’s climaxes – because there are roughly two of them – are both great. One of them is an inverse of one of the most iconic scenes in Star Trek history, using the alternate reality aspect of this new franchise to toy with our expectations. Maybe if I was a bigger Star Trek fan I’d get a little upset at how this scene is used, but personally, I loved it. I was definitely tearing up during the emotional moment, and I haven’t had waterworks at a movie in a long time. The moment is then immediately followed by a kickass action chase scene, which was great, but by then Cumberbatch’s villain is pretty much just a target, stripped of almost all of his previous menace and coldness. Not that I’m complaining. The movie is no longer about him by that point.

Star Trek Into Darkness is not going to blow your mind with deep, philosophical explorations of space, humanity or the Prime Directive. But it’s also not the sort of movie where you should check your brain at the door. Star Trek Into Darkness is the sort of action movie that wants you to pay attention, to really invest with the characters and what they’re doing. And I found it very easy to do just that. Kirk, Spock, Scotty and the crew of the Enterprise are as exciting to watch as ever. And when put up against villains as cool as Benedict Cumberbatch, with stories as good as this one, I can easily see a long life for this franchise.

And now I really, really can’t wait to see what J.J. Abrams does with Star Wars!

Oh, and one more thing, this scene and this character:

Look at them! Look at them!

Are completely pointless trailer bait. Shame on you, Star Trek Into Darkness.You’re better than that.