Star Trek: Into Darkness (live action movie), at the movie theater

I watched Star Trek: Into Darkness yesterday. As with Iron Man 3, I don't plan to write up a synopsis or a list of watch-alikes, mostly because I don't feel like it.

Review:

I didn't watch any trailers of this movie and hadn't even bothered to read a brief description of it – all I knew was that it was the second of the new Star Trek movies, I remembered liking the first one well enough, and Benedict Cumberbatch aka Sherlock Holmes was going to be in it. It wasn't until I was watching the movie that I learned that the newest villain was Khan. Although I swear I have seen Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at least a half dozen times, I think I've only ever seen snippets of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I've also never seen much of the original Star Trek show – the bulk of the Star Trek universe stuff I've seen has been in Star Trek: Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine.

I have no idea what a huge fan of the original series would think of this movie, but I, personally, enjoyed it. Not necessarily so much for the story – I didn't hate it, but there was an awful lot of stuff that seemed a little too convenient, I was left with several unanswered questions at the end that I'm not sure will ever be answered, and there were some things that seemed potentially important that were just dropped. Also, there were things I could see coming from a mile away – for example, one bit with Kirk near the end was shocking...until I remembered a scene from earlier in the movie that provided a perfect explanation for how everything could be put right again.

I thought this movie shined the most when it came to its characters. If you have a favorite character from the original series, or if you just have a favorite character from the first of the new movies, you're in luck, because everyone gets at least a moment to be awesome. Spock and Uhura were my favorites, and not just because I enjoyed them as a couple. Spock had some great lines, and I loved the part where Uhura got a chance to try to save everyone's butts with her knowledge of Klingon (I do wish the moment had been less brief). Scotty got more screen time than I expected, Chekov was in over his head and kind of adorable, Bones seemed to have an endless supply of metaphors (and a dead tribble), and Sulu got to sit in the captain's chair and act tough.

All in all, I had fun watching this movie. I don't know how likely it is that I'll ever re-watch it, but, if I do, it will primarily be to see the characters interact with each other and to see my favorite characters again.

One last comment: Costume designers really like putting Benedict Cumberbatch in long coats, don't they? Not a bad thing, since he wears them awesomely.