Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 160 Ratings

  • Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana
  • Summary: After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 41
  2. Negative: 1 out of 41
  1. Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    May 15, 2013
    100
    Into Darkness is a sleek, thrilling epic that's also a triumphantly witty popcorn morality play. It's everything you could want in a Star Trek movie.
  2. Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    May 16, 2013
    80
    So many things are done right that even with the bombast, "Into Darkness" is the best of this summer's biggies thus far. It's a great deal of brash fun.
  3. Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    May 2, 2013
    60
    After impressing well enough in his previous big screen directorial outings, Abrams works in a narrower, less imaginative mode here; there's little sense of style, no grace notes or flights of imagination. One feels the dedication of a young musician at a recital determined not to make any mistakes, but there's no hint of creative interpretation, personal feelings or the spreading of artistic wings.
  4. Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    May 14, 2013
    38
    The only darkness here — besides the dingy-looking images dimmed by 3-D glasses — is the murky plot, which is as silly as it is arbitrary.

See all 41 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 65
  2. Negative: 13 out of 65
  1. Fast paced, exciting, action packed, yet tells a great story that begins the 5 year mission of the original Enterprise crew. True to the characters and the world of Star Trek, this movie is one that can be enjoyed by all (except Trekkers who believe Star Trek is only meant for them). I think this movie is a great way to introduce Star Trek to a new crowd....a much broader crowd that previous movies just didn't do. Thank you JJ Abrams and team for putting together yet another excellent movie. Expand
  2. When I saw the reviews that were coming in for Star Trek Into Darkness, I rolled my eyes. The first one got good reviews and in my opinion, that movie was a mess. So my expectations were low going into this film; "just another stupid popcorn movie that will sully the name of Star Trek". I was even ready to go get a refund and go watch Iron Man 3 if need be. Boy was I wrong. This outing was thoroughly entertaining, flowed logically (a huge issue with the last film), and even had some good character moments. People also acted like people in this film, and Kirk was less of an idiot this time around and actually grew as a character. Story was pretty solid; some of technical details were off but I can't complain. Reveals were well paced and the action was handled well. There was one moment near the end that had me rolling my eyes and wondering what the hell the writers were thinking (hint: it isn't very original). However, upon reflection it made sense, and the reactions of the characters was believable. Though, one will have to accept that time has passed between this movie and the last, so the non-nonsensical character dynamics in the last film have evolved and been fine tuned into something sane and rational. Also, the main villain has been given a lot more menace and demonstrates why he's a major threat (you'll see what I mean when you watch the film). Overall, 8/10. A lot better than the first. Expand
  3. 5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Good points:
    Effects are superb, Pine is excellent as Kirk, CGI is also excellent.

    Bad points:
    Khan should be ruthless, virtually unbeatable he isn't.
    Scotty is a major annoyance esp that accent!
    Spock FFS can't believe they actually have him crying that's a major cringe point, this alone managed to detract from what was an entertaining movie.
    It's a real pity as I thought this was going to be a hit.
    Expand
  4. Full disclosure: of all the Stark Trek chapters whether in books, TV episodes and movies I have only seen 2 of the 6 Star Trek movies. Being fairly new to what has been around for nearly 50 years I hope “Star Trek Into The Darkness” as a stand alone movie doesn’t represent all the previous stories. I felt a lot depended upon being a ‘trekkie’ and knowing what came before.

    The current film, in spite of the title, has more strobe lights and different colors than any movie I have seen in a long time. Between “Oblivion” and “Iron Man 3” this movie had very poorly executed non-special effects except how San Francisco will look years from now. The fights whether between men or machines were very lame.

    The screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof offered some looks into the human side of all from a possible romance between Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Nyota (Zoe Saldana) if not a bromance between Spock and Kirk (Chris Pine) though I didn’t know who the latter was until later in the film when he is referred to as Captain James T. Kirk and, for whatever reason, I immediately thought of William Shatner.

    The standouts were Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain with Simon Pegg as Scotty offering the only laughs along the way. Whether the rest of the cast were satisfactory to Trekkies I didn’t have any problems with John Cho, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller or any of the other actors.

    A new director and other screenwriters would bring a lot more to the sequel than those involved with this did. With many more ‘summer’ special effects blockbuster movies on the way I would suggest skipping this one.
    Expand

See all 65 User Reviews

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