Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness has all of the things that made the reboot film good: it has a great cast with great characters continuing their adventures and arcs in a satisfyingly entertaining film.

This goes doubly for Zachary Quinto as Spock, who is furthering the depth of the Vulcan with his struggle between being both Vulcan and Human.

The charm and the likability of these characters are just as good as they were in the previous film...if not more so.

...until the end of the first act that is.

After that, the film screeches into a thriller/drama halt that, as entertaining as it is, seems to falter in its self-seriousness.

Mind you, the thriller aspects are pretty good: the action is exciting and the plot moves along to keep these aspects of the film engaging.

It's the drama portion that doesn't work quite as well: the drama with Spock and everyone else is done well, but the relationship between Pike and Kirk? Not so much.

In fact, the drama with Kirk feels a tad forced.

What also doesn't work? The villain of the film, John Harrison, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Wait wait...that's not exactly true.

Cumberbatch as Harrison is actually pretty good. He does well in the action parts of the film and plays a very calculated and cold killer quite well.

-----SPOILERS FOR Star Trek Into Darkness STARTS HERE---------

When the villain becomes a problem is when it is revealed who John Harrison really is: Khan.

Then...things get slippery real fast.

Now, it is true that they have to change up characters in a reboot to make it feel fresh...but there are aspects of Cumberbatch's Khan that doesn't fit right.

Lack of charisma, how stone faced his performance is...how much he plays TOO WELL into the supervillain role.

Ricardo Montalban's performance led you to believe he could lead and people would want to, despite being a sneering, despicable villain. Cumberbatch really doesn't.

On top of that, the film likes to reference The Wrath of Khan way too much...and none of it really fits well with the rest of the film.

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This leads to a weird result with the film: it's good only in the parts that remind you of the reboot film.

But when it reminds you of what's in the spoiler section, it actually feels a lot messier than it needs to.

The result is a film that will entertain you with it's heroes' plight but will make you shake your head when it leads to the villain.