Captain James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock ( Zachary Quinto) and the rest of their crew in Star Trek Into Darkness comply with what seems to be the theme of this summer’s superhero/blockbuster/most anticipated releases: being a true hero.
If you are smarter than me, you took Star Trek (the film’s predecessor)more seriously. Now you know more about the Confederation Armada, its crew, and their mission. That first film worked like the Billy Graham for thousands of Star Trek non-believers by converting them almost instantly into Star Trek die-hard fans. I didn’t get past the emotion and into the commitment.
As a result, I was a little confused with space rebel Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch), his Wolverine-like healing powers and his motives for killing innocent aliens throughout the universe, all together. But who cares? He’s the bad guy.
A much more invaluable element here is Kirk and Spock’s bromance.
If you missed the first movie, the first 10-15 minutes of this one act as a pretty accurate précis of Kirk’s carefree and rebellious spirit. You can’t blame him. Breaking rule after rule, he still manages to become captain of the Enterprise. So having him start out in this one by breaking a seemingly unimportant but surprisingly meaningful rule shocks no one.
(Mind you, Kirk breaks this rule with the sole purpose of saving Spock’s life. Spock, of course, sees this as an outrage because he was so ready to die, dang it!)
I’ve always admired what these types of (almost) double-protagonist structures leave room for and it is why I was not really interested in Khan’s evil strategies. The bad guy seldom changes. The hero is the one that learns a lesson and goes through what they call a “character arc.”
Above all, this is what the movie is all about: the character’s choices, not his circumstances. So, multiply this by two and there you have a forest of emotions, points of views and all other types of enigmatic sensations. This is especially true when Uhura (Zoe Saldana) gets involved here.
Kirk, needless to say, makes the ultimate sacrifice for his crew but Spock learns the same lesson as well without having to make the decision Kirk makes, even though Spock is willing to die for the sake of the mission.
Kirk, out of all people, moves Spock and teaches him the honor of making a conscious choice which puts one in fatal danger versus winding up there as an error.
If you are a Star Trek fan you can enlighten the rest of us with the wrath of Khan. But I don’t think you need to be such a fan to enjoy this movie.
Again, summer releases are doing phenomenal so far. They are finally balancing out the ticket cost. So get out there and get your money’s worth.