Star Trek: Into Darkness

My Rating: 5/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Kids-In-Mind: 3.5.4

This movie can be summed up in one word: epic. Honestly, the only movie that comes close to this one in sheer epicness (not a word, but it should be) is the Avengers. And I loved the Avengers. I've seen a lot of reviews of this movie criticizing it for reusing plot points from the actual second Star Trek movie, the Wrath of Khan, but I thought it was more of a tribute to the Wrath of Khan than a copy. I've seen The Wrath of Khan and while Into Darkness does borrow several things from it, it is still an original, interesting and, of course, epic story. It's amazing to me how they can take these characters which were used so extensively in the original Star Trek show as well as several movies and create a new story around them that manages to take them to new heights of character development and exploration. Basically, there are several things that make this movie epic. First, the characters. As I already said, they manage to be so similar to the original characters yet different enough to keep the story riveting. The characters and their relationships with one another are very much the heart of the movie, but everything else does contribute beautifully. The music, as in the 2009 film, is amazing and deepens the emotions of the characters so well from the intense battle scenes to the quiet moments of sorrow and contemplation. The dialogue is alternately witty and tear-jerking, and the pacing was balanced well between the intense moments and the slower ones. And then there was the visuals. This is what took Into Darkness beyond the Avengers in my opinion. The Avengers had some awesome visuals too, but not quite at this level. J. J. Abrams just seems to have such a good feel for when stunning visuals accentuate the plot perfectly. Honestly, the only things I didn't like about this movie were a couple of totally unnecessary raunchy scenes (though nothing too bad). Even the violence, which generally does bother me (see my review for Iron Man 3) was used well so that it contributed to the plot without overwhelming it. If you're squeamish, I would recommend watching this when it comes out on DVD so you can skip parts, but it is definitely worth watching for both Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike.