By RACHEL M. BOLTON
Arts Editor
In short, it’s a dolled-up remake, but a helluva good one. Star Trek Into Darkness goes where people have gone before, but does so with its own flair. While classic Star Trek fans may be annoyed with the changes, the good outweighs the bad, and the film is worth the four year wait.
Set a few months after the 2009 film, Into Darkness begins with our crew investigating a primitive world that is about suffer the eruption of a volcano. The sequence is visually spectacular, while giving the whole cast a moment to shine.
However, it can’t be happy trails for long. Captain Kirk ends up breaking Starfleet’s number one rule and loses the Enterprise. But Starfleet has problems of its own, when one of its blackops agents bombs a research facility.
After a second attack, Kirk and Spock go after the mysterious John Harrison, who is not what he seems. *Spoiler Alert*After years of denying it, the villain is the infamous Khan, woken up years earlier than he originally was. Â While I did roll my eyes in the theater when this was confirmed, I will say that retelling his story was done well for the most part with one giant exception.
Into Darkness does what an alternate universe story is meant to do: take a familiar story and turn it on its head. The film does borrow elements from 1982’s The Wrath of Khan it has its own twist on it.  If you have ever wondered what would happen if certain characters had their roles and motivations reversed, this film does so while remaining a good story in its own right.
While the trailers made the film seem as just another action movie, Into Darkness had some tear-jerking moments along with having its characters debate what qualifies someone for leadership, the role emotions in the line of duty, and what makes a family. A few of the films themes hit close to home. As the original series passed commentary on the 60’s, Into Darkness discussed how people respond to fear in a changing time.
I was impressed with the action scenes. The final boss battle between Khan and Spock was probably one of the better on film hand-to-hand fights I have seen. I saw the film in 3D IMAX, and like The Hobbit, it is worth it. I jumped when the spears launched at Doctor McCoy looked like they flew off the screen.
While the film did focus on the developing friendship between Kirk and Spock, the rest of cast got to have their moment in the limelight. The adorable Chekov got to save the day. Sulu was his most commanding, although I wish he got to use his katana again. Simon Pegg’s Scotty stole every scene he was in, and he did more than bring comic relief to tense moments.
I was happy with how the female characters were portrayed. Uhura got be badass, parleys with Klingons, rescues her man, and blasted Khan with her phaser. Mercifully Doctor Carol Marcus was not a talking prop, and moved the plot along. But the film could really do without the gratuitous and stupid scene with her in her underwear.
However, it is with the villain that the film has its largest flaw. While Benedict Cumberbatch is an excellent baddie and gives a great performance, he should have not been cast as Khan. There are several other Star Trek villains he could have been perfect as. Khan Noonian Singh is supposed to be Indian and was played by a person of color in the past, and the original actor to cast in the new film’s role was so too. Villain twists are harder and harder to pull off, and casting the white Benedict Cumberbatch to hopefully fool audiences did not work. It pushed my willing suspension of disbelief that the pasty Brit was Khan, and this whitewashing damages the Star Trek franchise’s reputation at being above average at handling racial issues.
Despite my annoyances, I really loved this movie. Visually, narratively, and characterization wise, it holds up. It’s certainly far better than some of the previous Star Trek films, and I hope we don’t have to wait another four years for its sequel. But now that the reboot has redone the story of Khan, I hope that all future endeavors boldly go where no one has gone before, and leave the man alone for good. Star Trek cannot survive standing on the shoulders of giants.
