Star Trek Into Darkness is a worthy if flawed sequel to the 2009 reboot that delivers on much of the promise of that film while still not quite living up to it.

When we join Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew they are knee deep in some spurious science and a complete disregard for the Prime Directive. In order to save Spock (Zachary Quinto) from cold-fusioning himself to death, Kirk allows the ship to be seen by the planet’s primitive indigenous people and thus clues them into technology before they are ready. Kirk is pretty sure that it doesn’t matter and that he will be a shoe in for the upcoming five year deep space mission. As it turns out, he is relieved of his command and ordered to serve under Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to learn some responsibility. A series of terrorist attacks perpetrated by John Harrison (Benedict Cumerbatch), a former Star Fleet operative, puts Kirk back in the captain’s chair on a suspect mission to bring the terrorist down.

Further discussion of the plot gets deep into spoiler territory really quick so talking around the particular plot issues and strengths is somewhat difficult. In the broad strokes, however, Star Trek Into Darkness does way more right than it does wrong but the places it stumbles hurt pretty badly.

Going into the deficits first, there are some plot holes and technology issues that have bothered some viewers but honestly I do not look to Star Trek for scientific accuracy and I don’t really care that much if cold fusion doesn’t freeze lava. I have already accepted faster than light travel, space ships, phasers, aliens, teleportation and time travel so I am not going to get hung up on stuff like this. I know that it drives some people nuts and if you are one of those people then you might have some problems but for me it isn’t much of an issue. What is an issue, however, is the lack of emotional resonance that I felt in this installment.

It might be that I am holding the movie to too high a standard but the last picture made me cry in the first 10 minutes so I don’t think it is unreasonable for me to expect to feel some emotion here. It isn’t that the movie doesn’t try…there are several emotionally tricky moments, but for me these moment did not land. Your mileage may vary and conversations with people after the film suggests that it does quite a bit but I didn’t feel my heartstrings tugged nearly as much as I feel like they should have.

The next thing sort of straddles the line between being a good and bad thing and that is the inconsistent and shifting narrative and general lack of narrative structure. I didn’t see three acts here and the story lacks a lot of focus. This sounds like a cut and dry criticism but in this case I kind of liked the sense of chaos and unclear objectives. The villains change from moment to moment and the only consistent thing in the movie is the importance of loyalty and friendship and how far you are willing to go to keep your friends alive. Kirk is constantly navigating by the seat of his pants and making snap decisions without having all the information beyond what is generally right and what is generally wrong. This is compelling as a study of priority and problem solving but it doesn’t fit in a traditional narrative structure. As it turns out it doesn’t have to as it gets its point across effectively enough even if it all comes of as a bit emotionally empty.

From an action and special effects standpoint the movie is amazing. It looks fantastic and the action set pieces are amazing. From space battles to ground based combat to chase scenes, the movie delivers thrills by the dozens. JJ Abrams has a real flare (no pun intended) for this sort of thing and that will serve him very well in his upcoming Star Wars film.  Cumerbatch really shines in these sequences as well as he handles the physical aspects of his role amazingly.

I have given the movie a hard time for not landing emotionally but I don’t want to make it sound as if the characters are mishandled or off. It is rather a matter of the impact being softer than I would like. From an acting standpoint, everyone involved is terrific. Pine and Quinto play off their relationship growth from the first movie and make further progress here. Both of them handle their roles with perfection. Cumerbatch is a man I would watch read the phone book and he acquits himself with gravitas and power. He is a terrific villain both in the acting as well as in the writing and Cumerbatch does a terrific job. Other new comers to the series Alice Eve as Carol and Peter Weller as Admiral Marcus do very well even if they are overshadowed somewhat by Cumerbatch.

The Enterprise’s crew is filled out by the same players as the last time and they each seem to have settled into their roles in a more comfortable way than in the previous film. John Cho’s Sulu is much more confident and capable which is more character growth than anything but I feel like Cho has gotten more comfortable as well. Simon Pegg is terrific as always as Scotty and is given a bit more to do this time around along with Anton Yelchin’s Chekov who also gets more to do. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura shines every time she is onscreen but I feel like she was underused a bit. I understand she got more attention last time but she is really good and deserves as much time as possible.

This brings us to Karl Urban as Bones. I love everyone’s performances in both these movies but none of them touch Urban’s Bones. He is absolutely perfect and is also criminally underused in both films. I really want to see more of him in the future because he is just too good to keep in the background. Sure, he delivers an iconic line here and that is nice but I want more.

Speaking of all the inside baseball stuff here, there are a lot of subtle and not so subtle nods to both the TV series and the film series that are really awesome to see. A lot of character traits are set up and paths are chosen for where the characters will go in the future and it is cool to see that get set up here. I am a fan of this sort of thing so I found it to be delightful.

Conclusion [8.5 out of 10]

Problems aside, at the end of the day I really dug Star Trek Into Darkness despite having a stupid title and some moments falling flat for me. The good outweighs the bad and I am looking forward to see this movie again as well as to see where the series is going to go from here.