Star Trek: Into Darkness

Disappointing. To start with, many of the action scenes are so badly edited as to be almost incoherent. But the major problem is that, like some other big-budget movies, this one follows the playbook by piling on the soul-deadening violence. With entire skyscrapers being destroyed, the body count here is incalculable (but clearly large). Around the edges, there are some little touches for Trekkers. A decent joke about Spock's ears. Bones saying, "I'm a doctor, Jim, not a [fill in the blank]." Spock (at last) revealing his human side. Etc. But even many of these touches come off as pandering because they don't arise naturally. The main thing the film has going for it is the fine, young cast (especially Simon Pegg as Scotty), but finally that's not enough. It's depressing that the film is so popular: Live long and prosper, indeed.