Didn't anyone see it yet? I thought it was better than the first one. I'm disappointed I spoiled myself but still didn't find the one reveal to be cheap or less exciting. Cumberbatch was brilliant. The "I love you, man" moment by Kirk and Spock was great as well. I thought most of the cast was used effectively except for Karl Urban. For some reason he annoyed me in this for the most part. Hopefully on the next one they will expand on more of the crew's relationships. Can someone please explain to me the fuss about the Klingon's new look? I still think they look like Klingons and not more towards the Enemy Mine aliens. Poll, spoilers? When?
I'm going to mention or allude to some spoilers so jump over this if you haven't seen it and have somehow managed to stay unspoiled.
Yes I also saw it. It was decent, though I don't think it was better than the first for a couple of reasons: 2009's ST set the tone, feel, look, attitude, and genius idea of creating an alternate reality universe for this new series to occur in while retaining that element of Old Spock from the original universe, thereby giving both old fans and new something to latch onto besides all the other great stuff. 2009 ST's only downside was the ridiculous amount of lens flare. Jesus, JJ, enough's enough, you way overdid it.
Into Darkness was fun, sometimes dark, great action, etc, but still seems like a slightly paler shadow of 2009's movie in most respects, as well as majorly so in terms of trying to basically mimic Wrath of Khan unsuccessfully in most respects. Sure, the effects were better, and Cumby was great as the character he played, but not brain-searingly awesome like Ledger as the Joker or RDJ as Iron Man. He did a great job of adding weight and darkness to the role, but he didn't make it his own. Montalban is still the "real" Khan.
Also, I found Carol Marcus to be an almost completely pointless character. Granted there was some technical stuff she did with the torpedoes, but that could've been accomplished just as easily by Chekov, and the family stuff with her dad was essentially unnecessary. They could've done a much better job of establishing and exploring her character.
That said, overall it was still a great summer popcorn movie, and overall I enjoyed it. I'd probably give it a 7/10, and will definitely buy it on DVD when it comes out as I'm a fan of the new Trek verse, so much so I even regularly check out IDW's series which fits into the new verse and plan on checking out the video game (which has received crappy reviews but I'm dedicated).
I liked how it ended, with the Enterprise officially starting its 5 year voyage, and look forward to seeing how a third movie does in terms of story. Since Spock didn't die I'm hoping we won't get a rehash of the search (though its possible they'll set that up early in a third and contain that plot in one movie), and I'm really hoping we don't see them go back in time to mid 1980's Earth to save some frigging whales. I'd really prefer they either do a completely original story (unlikely), or adapt an original series episode. It's also entirely possible Khan will rear his not so ugly head again since he was alive and in cryo at the end of this one. We'll see.
