Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), PG-13, 3.5 stars

Zachary Quinto as Spock and Chris Pine as Kirk.

Let's go back to the beginning. When the previous "Star Trek" came out, I was astounded by the result because it had a very good plot and had very good chemistry between the cast members. I believed that they were in control of the Enterprise at a very young age. Even, Pine and Quinto were magnetic to each other when communicating about saving the ship or saving a planet. They had basically created their own set of characters. I think they produced the same result in this sequel with an excellent performance anchoring the movie.

The movie opens in 2259 when the Enterprise is sent to a planet to study an isolated species. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) are on the group saving its inhabitants from a volcanic eruption. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is in danger when he is inside the volcano with a suit that cannot really withstand much longer due to the colossal heat. Kirk refuses to leave Spock in there and he violates the Prime Directive when the Enterprise is exposed to the planet.

When the crew comes back to Earth, Kirk has been let go as captain of the Enterprise as a result of exposure and Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) is reinstated to command the Enterprise. There has been an attack in a section in London committed by a Starfleet agent, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Kirk, Spock and Pike go to a meeting to talk about the attack and hunt down John Harrison. But, a mysterious aircraft attacks the meeting by none other than Harrison himself resulting in some deaths.

Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller from Robocop) reinstates Kirk to go hunt down Harrison, where he transported himself to Kronos, a Klingon planet. Marcus establishes prototype proton torpedoes on the ship and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg) resigns himself when he is instructed not to inspect the torpedoes. Kirk assigns Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) as the chief engineer and Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) is on board of the Enterprise.

While debating how to get to Kronos and get Harrison, McCoy, Spock and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) decide that it is best to hunt down Harrison rather than kill him which they do after a little battle with the Klingons.

Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison being taken away.

This movie provides a lot of references to one of the movies and the series and introduces one particular set of species: the Klingons. While it establishes itself as a strong entry to the series, there is so much energy and palpable tension onboard between Kirk and Harrison. Harrison delivers a secret that may be startling to Trek fans and maybe to the younger audiences.

The movie, on a whole, is very good but I had minor quibbles to the picture. I found that the makeup on the Klingons is pretty bizarre and atrocious. They look like human beings with a disease. The climax between Spock and Harrison fighting felt more like a "Star Wars" movie rather than a "Star Trek" movie if you know what I mean. Also, there's so much darkness that the movie did not have a lot of time to create quiet tender moments between the crew, maybe in one scene that I won't give away.

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are really good together as always. Benedict Cumberbatch steals the movie with his villainous performance with clarity and articulation. His character is so layered than usual to formulate a plan. J.J. Abrams, the director, re-launched the Trek series quite well with these two movies and created an exciting sequel. Let's hope he does that with the Star Wars series. If he does, he would be considered a top-level director and a masterful sci-fi savior.

***1/2