Culture

Rating: 2.5/5

I arrived at the midnight premier for Star Trek Into Darkness, two equally bewildered friends in tow, to encounter a menagerie of costumed oddities standing in the Rialto foyer. Trekkies have always been something of a mystery to me; I watched my first Star Trek film only last week (the 2009 reboot), and I kind of saw the point, but it was a bit baffling all the same.

Star Trek Into Darkness picks up more or less where the last film left off, with Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) exploring the galaxy on the USS Enterprise and and engaging in various special-effects-laden adventures. Before long they are called on to track down John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), a “terrorist” (all action villains are “terrorists” these days) who has declared a one-man war against Starfleet.

Into Darkness is a well-conceived and slickly produced but ultimately uneven film. You know there’s something wrong when Leonard Nimoy out-acts most of your cast in a 45-second cameo. Karl Urban in particular gives one of the worst acting performances I have ever seen, delivering every line like a fifteen-year-old taking the piss (although the script does him no favours – “You’re putting him in a high-stakes poker game with no chips and asking him to bluff!”; “Damn it, man, I’m only a doctor!”, etc). Female characters are also an obvious and sadly predictable weakness, portrayed as emotionally-driven pieces of meat and subject to innumerable gratuitous leg shots.

Despite the general incompetence of those around him, though, Benedict Cumberbatch gives a masterclass. His strange, angular handsomeness, surprising physicality, and overall quality of menace make him a magnificent and utterly compelling villain. Perhaps too compelling: I spent much of the film wishing he would stick around long enough to finish off Bones, Scotty, Chekov and the rest of the Enterprise’s infuriatingly hammy crew.

On the whole, Star Trek Into Darkness is an entertaining and worthwhile film, but J. J. Abrams needs to do better when he takes on Star Wars. That’s the one I really care about.