Star Trek: Vers les ténèbres

Saw this in 3D theatre in 2013. ReWatched it again recently. Still good entertaining film after 13 years.

This Trek film is made after Cumberbatch is famous for Sherlock. Here, he's true scene stealer, giving powerful performance, unlike his recent big budget films. Script has plot holes & copies from original outdated 1982 Wrath of Khan flick. Those complaining "why Latino not cast as Khan" forget original Khan (Ricardo) & his crew were all costumed BLONDE, his crew all white actors, Ricardo & crew portray whites - not Latino. Khan's full name is Mongloid Asian- not India nor Latino. FOCUS on one's ACTING instead of race in any film. An Asian actor could've played Khan here. There's very good American Asian actors & many overseas accomplished Chinese, Japanese, Korean, ASEAN bilingual actors but NONE are cast in big budget Hollywood films or series, incl animation, ESP ICONIC lead roles, even after w* *ke movement. Michelle Yeoh's recently created "Empress" character in "Discovery" & 2025 "Section 13" TV streaming flicks are low budget & poor script quality; cardboard character & waste of her talent. She's not cast as iconic Trek character nor creating unique memorable one like Borg Queen.

Back to this film - there's solid plot & script, cast chemistry, action, inventive quality sci fi, music & direction - ALL requisite elements for good film. Main Trek cast & guest leads give good performances. Spock transforming into action type mode is a big stretch but excusable bc of previous 2009 Trek film. This film has action throughout but not excessively. To the many Critics despising action in Star Trek, desiring "talkie" film: see MANY DULL NO action low budget "talking" Trek films released, esp 1st 1980 "Star Trek The Motion Picture." View all following "curing insomnia" 1980s-1996 no action talking Trek films. All slow paced, cheap production flicks even @ their release dates. All outdated few yrs after release.

THIS film script has humor that's well delivered. One good character / actor exits but it's key to plot. Ending is bit predictable but with twist.

Remaining fun & entertaining after 13 YEARS is TRUE TEST of ANY film. Enjoy it!

The previous Star Trek movie is a tough one to beat. It was (in my eyes) close to perfection (lens flares and all). So this movie had a tough up-hill battle ahead of it. I am happy to report that the writing, direction, cinematography and acting were all terrific. But it's not quite flawless. There are a couple of minor plot holes that distract viewer attention to some degree.

Cumberbatch is brilliant. I won't divulge any spoilers, but I will say that the throw back to the earlier movies is very very clever and well executed. The added depth we see in the characters of Kirk and Spock are icing on an already delicious cake!

If I could give it a zero, I would. The only thing to save this travesty is Zachary Quinto and cool explosions. If it weren't for him, I'd give it a 1.

Really bad acting, coupled with a terrible version of the story of Kahn, and why in the world is everything on the Enterprise glowing like a flashlight?

And then they had the gall to use the original Star Trek theme at the end? I can see why many of the old actors have a serious problem with the new movies.

This is terrible, really terrible. Gene Roddenberry was greedy as can be, but I think he'd have a serious problem with this version. In the original, he wanted to show that humanity had finally overcome most of the things that caused us problems. The only place these things could still be found was in the expansion regions where it was still the wild west.

But in this... everything from the uniforms, the slang, the music, and everything else is EXACTLY as it is now but shinier. Really? This is ridiculous.

Abrams should be ashamed.

Golly I think my title sums up everything I wanted to say. As far as basic plot goes, there's nothing particularly new here: a psycho super being plans to kill people and blow up things while the Enterprise is, for the millionth time, "the only ship in the quadrant". This movie is very lazily written, sort of like that homework assignment you slapped together on the bus to school but with a multi zillion dollar budget. But before you transport off this page, bear in mind the film's saving grace...

There are a ton of groan-worthy, yet very effective, references to the old Star Trek universe, making this a pretty entertaining watch even though I sound like I'm slamming it harder than a shuttle craft making Emergency Landing Plan B ("B! As in BARRICADE"). That plus a ton of dazzling special effects and nonstop action prompt me to rate this movie a definite WORTHWHILE WATCH, even though my inner Trek nerd is screaming for you to avoid it like that episode "Spock's Brain".

No, this is NOT a remake of the incomparable "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982) although it does feature the characters Khan as well as Dr. Carol Marcus.

No, Khan does not show off his bulging pecs as only the late great Ricardo Montalban could do.

YES, there is a sneaky remake of the famous radiation "you'll flood the chamber" scene which is fun to watch.

YES, Chris Pine does an admirable job of playing Captain Kirk as the charmingly arrogant young captain who doesn't like to lose.

YES, Zachary Quinto does an admirable job of playing the stoic Mr Spock, and YES there is a cameo by Leonard Nimoy as the original Spock.

YES, Dr, McCoy says "Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a ---!"

and lastly, YES, at a certain point in the movie someone does, in fact, yell: "KHAAaaAaAAAAAaaANNN!!!"

So what more needs to be said. Great popcorn flick. Fun little nods to the old Trek series. It doesn't require too many brain cells. But then again, neither does "Spock's Brain" and we still love it.

Truly spectacular, one of those rare amazing, inventive and often unpredictable blockbusters. The acting was great all round, especially Cumberbatch - wow, he was superb. The direction, cinematography and visual effects were all greatly innovative and brilliant; the screenplay fun, often humorous and has a lot of heart for all its characters which are all really well developed.

The film has some cliché moments which can't be avoided often with a film this scale however they make use of them well and still pack plenty of surprises. As well as this, despite not being a proper Trekkie myself, some moments gave me goosebumps from the awesomeness from seeing the Enterprise for the first time for example, which greatly honoured the original series. J.J. Abrams' lens flares helped create more realism in a lot of the scenes despite the fact he often overuses of them.

The villain was very interesting and the development, dialogue and motivations of his character were very convincing and inventive, Cumberbatch's fantastic acting greatly helped bring this character to life. Also the way he executed his plan showed a lot more cutting edge creativity than especially most modern blockbusters, not to say it's done nearly to the same level of genius but something I haven't felt in a villain's characterisation/acting since The Dark Knight.

Overall, a mesmerising film with nice homages to the original series, one filled with heart, grace, innovation, superb characters and acting and some impressive, clever visuals and immersive 3D, one of the only times I can say that. Up there with the 2009 one, not sure which I prefer, possibly the previous one largely due to the more clever story, despite this one having a much better villain, still not sure though. Still a very strongly recommended film, may hit my top 100 simply because how much I was impressed by it. 9/10!