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Mild Spoilers Ahead!

J.J. Abrams (TV's Lost and Alias) serves up a second, solid entry in the rebooted Star Trek franchise. Into Darkness is equal parts action and character-driven charm, with an emotional climax and a terrific villainous performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. You don't have to be a Trekkie to enjoy this flick, but it will add immeasurably to your enjoyment if you're familiar with the original crew's feature films, particulary Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. If you want to bring it out for inspection, the film does have something to contribute to a discussion on terrorism, but Abrams' approach is decidedly less didactic than Gene Roddenberry's. This Star Trek is just for summer movie entertainment.

If I have any gripes with the movie, it’s more a comment on Hollywood film making in general… and I proceed at the risk of sounding like an old fogey. But here goes: can we slow things down, please? I mean both the story pacing and the picture editing. In our desperate fear of losing the attention of today’s whipper-snappers, we are seriously short-changing the dramatic potential of epic storytelling and turning big-budget would-be spectaculars into visual blurs. I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness while I watched it, but I must confess that it isn’t staying with me in the slightest. One character’s dramatic death near the end of the movie is swept under the rug and forgotten no less than five minutes later. And the picture editing is so rapid that I have a hard time recollecting any particular shots from the movie. The overall results is disposable entertainment. Out of theater, out of mind.

Oscar Nomination: Best Visual Effects