Saw Star Trek: Into Darkness…. your average movie movie goer and the more casual (or more forgiving) Trek fans should enjoy this flick for the popcorn-eating, gee-whiz spectacle it’s trying to be. It looks great, it’s funny, well acted, and has some nice twists and turns (the trailers tell remarkably little about the film and, indeed, are full of deliberate misdirections). Most of the emotional stuff they try for succeed except for one moment that ultimately feels cheap because the film makers didn’t have the balls to do what they were trying to do (no spoilers – but it’s cheap in its own story and thematic structure as well as as a callback). Some plot holes and “hey wait a minute” moments – the script could have been tighter but overall I felt it was reasonably smart and clever script that was having more fun with explosions and kerpowy explody stuff.

Score: 84