Star Trek Into Darkness: Not Quite a Review.

     Ok, first off, I fully enjoyed the movie, despite the vast amount of absurdities.  Things like the Enterprise losing the warp core power and immediately it "falls" through space towards the nearest celestial body.  Really!?!?  Come ON!!!

  ---SPOILER WARNING---

"My name rhymes with JOOOOOOOHHHHNNN!"  -Khan

     It wasn't too hard to see that the main villain was Khan.  A flimsy cover up maintained after many had guessed long before the movie arrived on screen.  I get that they wanted people to "discover the story" as the main characters did, but seriously, stop covering it up! 

     Anyways, I'm glad Scotty gets a good chunk of things to do in this one.  Spock and Uhura get a small bit of relationship continuing.  Kirk is learning about consequences.  Bones is amazing and cantankerously quippy as ever.  Sulu gets a taste of being Captain, Chekov shifts to engineering, and there may be a precursor to Data on the bridge.

     We also finally get to see the new Klingon design, which I think is pretty awesome.  They also have a sensor cloaking ability on their ships.  That'll probably come in handy for the next film.

    Now- Khan.  He is played up perfectly as the superior being he was made to be.  Unfortunately the writers make plenty of stupid moves with him.  (Squashing heads?  Sure it shows his immense strength, but leaves out the tactical genius and battle swiftness he WOULD ACTUALLY BE USING, particularly in the fight with Spock.)  Khan's mythic presence has been rushed.  Being a tactical military super soldier, he should've been far smarter.  Seriously, why take out all that hate on all of Starfleet and not just focus on exposing and/or assassinating Admiral Marcus?  It would've been simple, smart, and highly effective.

     The movie is riddled with lazy writing and moments when the writers have sacrificed plausibility for something they hope to be moving- things that are so highly coincidental just to make the story fit a mold- that it is working against itself.  The trade off here is we are getting a meaningless and predictable rush through incoherent story without the depth of real emotion.  It feels like we are forced to endure a long series of escalating distractions, a constant barrage of action instead of the tension building that should be happening.  We need time to reflect and digest along side the character's growth- this process is extremely important in creating a lasting story, and Into Darkness is neglecting it.

     Where are the strange new worlds of the final frontier we were promised?  I don't know why the creators are trying to stuff references in every 5 minutes, but I would much appreciate it if we could go somewhere that means something.  In order for the series to grow, Star Trek needs to stop looking back, and start looking towards where they should be boldly going.

     Here's a bunch of miscellaneous thoughts:

• Khan and the Botany Bay should've been found by the Klingons. They are a war focussed culture, Khan is bred for that lifestyle. It gives a reason for him to be a great leader and cause turmoil in their society, then spread it to Starfleet later. Think of the following he could've had- the backing of at least some Klingons that give high honor and respect to the best warriors.
• Bones, instead of scientifically breaking down Khan's magic blood, injects it into a dead Tribble. Who thought of this? Lets test this questionable blood on a hairy chicken nugget. Then much, much later- the Tribble is brought back to life (I personally thought it would be the start of a "Trouble with Tribbles" subplot) and of course, it would be used to revive someone later even though it was shown earlier in the film that the blood has healing properties.
• Starfleet security is shit. Their meeting room has tons of windows, and no flying patrols?
• Parking their ship NEXT to the tribe the crew is trying to save instead of remaining IN ORBIT and OUT OF SIGHT.
• Isn't saving those people ALSO a violation of the Prime Directive?
• Why not beam the bomb into the volcano?
• Kirk's useless death. (see the magic blood) Someone should STAY dead.
• Bones made sythesized Khan blood, now NO injuries will be of threat ever again. 
• Spock, when enraged, should've displayed his struggle to contain the anger, and barely audibly whispered, "Khan."
• The transporters can snag people from anywhere, but can only send from the one teleporter bay.
• Chekov could beam 2 falling people, but now he has lost that ability?