Star Trek Into Darkness
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 15, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMay 15, 2013
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. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 15, 2013
Yes, this one is even better: funnier, brawnier and ingeniously constructed for appeal to both devoted fans and reluctant converts. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 14, 2013
The result is a stunningly nervy sequel that vaporizes any worries that Abrams’ terrific 2009 reboot was a fluke. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 15, 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness is a giddy homage to what’s come before it, but it also at least tries to go boldly where ... well, you know. Read full review
90
VarietyScott FoundasMay 2, 2013
Markedly grander in scale, although never at the expense of its richly human (and half-human) characters, “Into Darkness” may not boldly go where no “Trek” adventure has gone before, but getting there is such a well-crafted, immensely pleasurable ride that it would be positively Vulcan to nitpick. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 16, 2013
Kudos to Abrams for going bigger without going stupid. His set pieces, from an erupting volcano to the hell unleashed over London and Frisco Bay, are doozies. So's the movie. It's crazy good. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 15, 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness offers much of what the fans expect and not much of what they don't. This character-driven vehicle is a supercharged example of cinematic craftsmanship. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 14, 2013
Spectacular special effects, superbly crafted action sequences, plenty of humor and terrific performances render it a cut above most summer blockbusters. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 14, 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness gives you an exhilarating, tingle-inducing rush — that rare feeling that comes when a gigantic entertainment is firing on all fronts, exceeding your expectations. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 14, 2013
All Abrams wants to do is give us a great ride while holding firm to our longstanding emotional investment in these characters. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 14, 2013
The new film works. It's rousing. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 14, 2013
The action is exhilarating, the visual effects spectacular - and spectacularly realized. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 16, 2013
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. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 16, 2013
What's more -- and here's where Abrams' brilliance is on full display -- you don't need to know a Class M planet from a hole in the ground to enjoy it all. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerMay 2, 2013
In some sense, the title is misleading. Into Darkness is a blast, fun, funny, spectacular and exhilarating. The rule of great even-numbered Trek movies continues. Read full review
80
The GuardianAndrew PulverMay 1, 2013
People are unlikely to charge out of the cinema with quite the same level of glee as they did in 2009; but this is certainly an astute, exhilarating concoction. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 1, 2013
A stop-gap tale that’s modest, fun and briefly amusing rather than one that breaks new ground or offers hugely memorable set pieces. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatthew LeylandApr 26, 2013
Mostly, this is fantastic fun: a two-hours-plus blockbuster that doesn’t bog down in exposition or sag in the middle. There are reversals and rug-pulls galore, most of them executed with whiplash skill. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 15, 2013
Screenwriters Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and fanboys’ favorite whipping boy, Damon Lindelof, keep the film moving at a quippy clip; there’s really no fat here until the film feints a climax only to lurch the coaster-car back up the hill again. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 17, 2013
Is it too much to ask that he take a risk next time and kill somebody off, however much we’re used to having them in the “Trek” universe? Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 16, 2013
Since 9/11-style terrorism is very much on display here, I suppose it’s fair to say that Star Trek Into Darkness is a sci-fi blow-out with overtones of the real. Series founder Gene Roddenberry would, I think, approve. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 16, 2013
Rip-roaring set-pieces aside, the biggest pleasure here is still the yin-yang chemistry between Kirk and Spock, even as the writers sand down the barbed edges of the characters’ interactions. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 15, 2013
The special effects are first rate - not always the case with Star Trek movies, although Abrams has been given a budget the likes of which directors Nicholas Meyer, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner would have salivated over. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 15, 2013
Yet with all the futuristic splendor and the suitably majestic score and the fine performances, “Into Darkness” only occasionally soars, mostly settling for being a solid but unspectacular effort that sets the stage for the next chapter(s). Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 14, 2013
The casting coup here is Benedict Cumberbatch, who exudes steely resolve and silken savagery as a villain on the cusp of becoming a legendary nemesis. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 14, 2013
Full of humor, some exciting scenes and some intelligent parallels between the world of the film and the political and moral issues facing us today.
75
Slant MagazineChris CabinMay 14, 2013
The film is densely plotted, occasionally bordering on the convoluted, but the clarity and inventiveness of the direction keeps the drama and the action constantly percolating. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensMay 16, 2013
He’s (Abrams) caught some of the spark of the first Star Trek without either mimicking or desecrating the original. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 16, 2013
Noisy, frenetic, grandiose and essentially a soap opera, director J.J. Abrams's second contribution to the franchise has everything, including romance: Never before have Capt. James T. Kirk and his Vulcan antagonist, Mr. Spock, seemed so very much in love. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 15, 2013
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness – once you understand it as a generic comic-book-style summer flick faintly inspired by some half-forgotten boomer culture thing. (Here’s something to appreciate about Abrams: This is a classic PG-13 picture, with little or no sex or swearing, but one that never condescends.) Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonMay 14, 2013
Cumberbatch, a tweedy Brit with an M.A. in Classical Acting and a face like a monstrous Timothy Dalton, has beefed up to become a convincing killer. He's brutal and bold, and the film around him isn't bad either. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissMay 14, 2013
This series will survive as well, until 2016 — when, you can bet, there will be a third Star Trek to celebrate the TV show’s 50th anniversary. Here’s hoping that those three years will bestow a measure of maturity on all concerned: Kirk and his bright curators too. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 13, 2013
Is the movie good? It’s hard to be objective. The plotting is clunky and nonsensical, but Abrams and crew bombarded me into happiness. More than that, they made me feel so special for getting the in-jokes. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJun 11, 2013
Abrams and his screenwriters (Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof) are so obsessed with acknowledging and then futzing around with what we already know about Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and company that the movie doesn’t breathe. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMay 14, 2013
For those who enjoyed J.J. Abrams’s frisky relaunch of Star Trek back in 2009, the good news is that the new Star Trek Into Darkness is more of the same. The bad news is that Star Trek Into Darkness is, well, a bit too familiar. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 14, 2013
As our old friend Ricardo Montalban said thirty years ago in “The Wrath of Khan,” still the best of the “Star Treks” — “It is veeery coooooold in space.” “Into Darkness,” for all its dense textures and epic scale, left me cold. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 2, 2013
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. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 2, 2013
A large portion of Star Trek’s audience may well be satisfied by a film that amounts to not much more than an incredibly pretty and sporadically funny in-joke. But think back to the corny romance of that original mission statement, recited by William Shatner on many a rainy school night. Strange new worlds. New life. New civilisations. Boldly going where no man has gone before. That pioneer spirit? It’s gone. Read full review
58
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMay 6, 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness is a long, long way from a disaster, but it's hard not to feel that Abrams' mystery box turned out to be a bit empty this time out. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 21, 2013
You wind up feeling doubly bullied -- first by the brutal enormity of the set pieces, and then by the emotional arm-twisting of the downtimes. [20 May 2013, p.122]
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 15, 2013
It’s hard to emerge from “Into Darkness” without a feeling of disappointment, even betrayal. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 14, 2013
At least the Abrams-helmed Star Trek from 2009 had a pretzel-logic playfulness; the portentously subtitled Into Darkness is attempting like hell to be a Trek for our troubled times. The franchise has been thoroughly Christopher Nolan–ized. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickMay 14, 2013
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. Read full review
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