It's May 15th, 2013. At 10:30pm, my good friend Gabe and I are standing in line at a movie theater on the northwest side of Indianapolis. At this stage of my life, there are precious few things for which I will willingly wait in line for more than 15 minutes, but this is one of them: the premiere of a new Star Trek film.

We are surrounded by fellow fans. T-shirts emblazoned with the logos of various science fiction and fantasy franchises abound. My own shirt bears a zombie mosaic from The Walking Dead; many others simply display the familiar arrowhead emblem of Starfleet and the single declarative word "TREKKIE."

As we wait, the moviegoers who attended the 8:00pm showing of this "fan sneak" start to exit the theater. Among them is a boy clad in a red Starfleet tunic and cradling a model of the USS Enterprise in his arms. Somewhat impressively, not one member of the outgoing audience utters a single word about the plot of the film. They even seem to hush their conversations between themselves as they pass us, so as to not spoil the experience for fellow fans.)

After the theater employees clear away the trash, they let us in—imploring us to walk single file and informing us that the souvenir posters on the table we pass on our way are "first come, first served." We take our seats, we watch a few trailers for upcoming summer blockbusters, and we don our IMAX 3D glasses as instructed and wait for the movie to start. And then it does.

That movie, of course, is Star Trek Into Darkness—and I went on to watch it three times within a 24-hour period.

A note about spoilers: It's very much my intention to keep any spoilers in this review both minor and to an absolute minimum. If they become necessary, I will give clear warning. After all, what's the purpose of a movie review if not to be used as a gauge for those deciding whether or not to see a film?

(Spoiler-free) synopsis

Star Trek Into Darkness is the sequel to J.J. Abrams' 2009 movie Star Trek, a "re-imagining" of Gene Roddenberry's beloved science fiction franchise (producers have tried very hard not to use the word "reboot"). Some time-travel shenanigans in the 2009 film mean that these movies occur in a forked reality, separate from the Star Trek movies and television series that came before. This is a bold new universe. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the gang are all along for the ride, but they're starting with a clean slate.

In the new film, which takes place at some undetermined period of time after the events of the first film, Captain Kirk gets himself into trouble by bending and/or breaking the rules. Just as it looks like he'll be denied his destiny as a starship captain, tragedy strikes and BLAMMO—our heroes hurriedly board the Enterprise and rush off into space once again.

To summarize without spoiling, the story begins as a well-written (if unsubtle) allegory about how people will compromise their morals when frightened, but it eventually expands in scope to include a substantial homage to past Star Trek lore. When dealing with the ethics of fear in the first part of the film, the film is solid. No one is in danger of winning any Oscars, but it's a serviceable plot that gives the characters a good backdrop for plenty of great action and character moments. When the film veers into familiar Star Trek territory, however, things start to feel a little forced and gratuitous.

Cast and characters

The primary cast of the 2009 film returns to reprise their roles as our main characters. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin play Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov, respectively. Generally speaking, if you enjoyed these actors in their roles in the first "re-imagining," you're going to continue to enjoy them in Star Trek Into Darkness.

The Kirk-Spock-McCoy troika gets a lot of screen time, and the relationship between Kirk and Spock especially is a major focus of the film. For the most part, it's very well done. The two characters are continuing along their path from occasionally adversarial colleagues to true friends, and they travel many miles on that journey over the course of the movie.

Unfortunately, some of the other bridge crew of are again relegated to little more than background characters with little in the way of development. That said, this is understandable given the constraints of a feature film versus a television series; you can only do so much in two hours and twelve minutes.

Bruce Greenwood is back as now-Admiral Christopher Pike, a mentor and father figure for the talented but undisciplined Captain Kirk. As in the first movie, Greenwood owns almost every scene he's in.

The most prominent newcomers are Alice Eve as a Starfleet scientist named Carol Wallace, Peter Weller as Starfleet Admiral Marcus, and the much-discussed Benedict Cumberbatch as our villain—a mysterious and dangerous ghost named John Harrison.

Alice Eve does well with what she's given, but the character of Carol Wallace is fairly two-dimensional. Peter Weller, on the other hand, stands out among the new cast members. Where Bruce Greenwood's Admiral Pike exudes quiet confidence, Weller's Admiral Marcus demands your attention and makes sure that you know exactly what's on his mind and why you should be shutting up and paying attention. Weller occasionally shifts into scenery-chewing mode, but not often and not in a way that marred the performance for me at all.

Much has been written about Benedict Cumberbatch's performance and about the identity of his character. We'll forgo extensive discussion of the latter, but I can confirm that his performance is—and I use this next word without even a hint of hyperbole—amazing. He manages to be both mesmerizing and menacing, portraying a personality of ruthless precision and single-minded ambition.

The film has some cameos—namely Chris Doohan, son of the late James Doohan (who portrayed Scotty in Star Trek: The Original Series, seven Star Trek films, and one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation). When information about a Trek reboot started emerging in 2005-2006, there was a fan effort to have him cast in his father's role. While that effort didn't succeed, Doohan did get a background part as a Starfleet engineer aboard the Enterprise, and in Star Trek Into Darkness he gets to visit another of his father's old haunts—the transporter room.