“After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.” – [IMDB]

The Review

A non-stop ride of action, fun, and Trek.

The Verdict

Worth it - Abrams does it again with this fast-paced sequel to the 2009 film, that will surely please fans, new and old.

The Overview

Four years ago, J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek franchise in the most scifi way possible, time travel. From that point on, the journey of the crew of the Enterprise, the new and young version, was destined to be something different but still somehow familiar. Abrams delivers on that wholeheartedly with Star Trek Into Darkness.

This is by no means the perfect Trek film, but it is very much an Abrams Trek film, with lens flares, camera tilts, and beautiful visuals. And lots of action. So much so that once the film gets going there isn’t much time to breathe. Something is always happening, and the plot always headed for another turn. Seriously, it’s kind of like driving in the Swiss Alps. Still, it is an incredibly entertaining ride.

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto step up their characters a lot, as well as Simon Pegg’s Scotty, who gets much more play this time around, more so than some of the other crew members which is a bit unfortunate. Benedict Cumberbatch performs impeccably as the film’s villain, John Harrison. In fact, there are times when you might actually agree with him, even if you don’t agree with his methods, which is part of the reason why he’s so dangerous.

If you’re looking for a big, fun, action-filled adventure this year, Star Trek Into Darkness needs to be on your list of films to see. Especially if you’re a new or old Trek fan. There’s something in there for everyone. Don’t hesitate, and beam yourself up.

Ever since you saw Pirates of the Caribbean you were damn certain what career path you would take, piracy. Hell, you might already be doing that. Anyway, there’s some difficulties with real high seas piracy these days, such as it not being nearly as fun as Captain Jack Sparrow makes it out to be. If you still want to take a stab at being a pirate though, Ubisoft has got you covered with the next Assassin’s Creed game, Black Flag. Check out what it’s like living “Under the Black Flag” in one of their latest trailers.

The gameplay looks to be what you’ve come to expect from the series, with the addition of swimming with sharks, which has obviously been the one thing people have been crying out for over the past games. “More Jaws!” they said. Well now you have it.

And in case you thought you learned everything you needed to learn about pirates in school, get “The True Golden Age of Pirates” (according to Assassin’s Creed IV) here.

Drink up me hearties (but only if you’re of age), Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag comes to consoles on October 29.

Space. The final frontier. These are the messages from a planet called Earth, that were sent out amongst the stars to be entertainment for any other forms of life out there. Okay, not really, at least not on purpose. We are bouncing signals out into space all the time from TV to radio, and given that this information travels at the speed of light, there have been many instances of our pop culture out there delighting the stars. Here’s a map of it all, courtesy of xkcd. (Click to enhance)

This is also a good test of your pop culture IQ. Can you name all the references?

With bow in hand, and at the highest peak in District 12, Katniss Everdeen looks out onto Panem, ready to continue her struggle against the Capitol, and more importantly, become the symbol that she was meant to be. Okay, that’s the deep description of the new Catching Fire poster. More literally, it’s an Instagrammed, poster of Jennifer Lawrence holding a bow with a mockingjay cloud in the background.

The style of the poster fits with the others we have seen thus far, but this one shows off Katniss in her element, with her bow, though for some reason she’s not in the woods. The tagline “The Sun persists in rising, so I make myself stand” is deep and fits with what Katniss will be facing in this sequel to The Hunger Games. In case you’ve missed it thus far, check out the trailer for Catching Fire here, which comes out on November 22.

We already got a teaser of ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but this time around you can get almost three minutes of what the upcoming series will entail. Characters, action, and technology all show up here, with the focus being on what S.H.I.E.L.D. will be doing in between superhero flicks. Click it and enjoy it.

Agent Coulson gets a little heated for a few seconds in there. Perhaps we’ll see the more serious side of our favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent when the show comes to ABC this Fall.

Time travel is nothing but trouble. Many of us know this, but others need to experience it. In particular time travel can make love stories all the more complicated (see: Doctor Who) and can mess them up. Take Rachel McAdams for instance. She was The Time Traveler’s Wife, and she had quite a rough go of it a few times. This time around, Domhall Gleeson (aka Bill Weasley) is the time traveler she gets involved with, and drama, time travel, and romance ensues. Check out the international trailer for About Time.

That is one hell of a family secret, and one that could be very dangerous if it were for Bill Nighy saying you should only use it to better your life. See what sort of trouble Tim’s time traveling tribulations get him into on November 8.

For most people, a bad day lasts roughly 16 hours. For Jack Bauer, a bad day lasts the whole 24 hours. It doesn’t just involve stubbing your toe, or failing a test either. Jack’s bad days involve running, gunning, bombs, terrorists, and other sorts of high octane forms of sleep deprivation. It’s been almost three years since Jack has had to deal with any of those problems, but it looks like he’s going to be having another bad day soon.

In May of 2014, Kiefer Sutherland will be taking Jack Bauer back to Fox for a new run of 24. This time around, we won’t be seeing the full 24 hours of Jack’s bad day, but instead 12 hours over 12 episodes. According to Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly, these 12 hours are “the spine of the 24 episodes” where the “big events” occurred. The 12 hours will allow for jumping around in Jack’s day without having to stick to 24 consecutive hours, which may help the new season move much faster.

Don’t expect old Jack to be sticking getting a whole new lease on life with this 12 episode run, since Fox is not expected to turn 24 back into a regular series. It is still possible given that Fox is using this new season as a Summer bridge between the network’s regular season shows. If this plan works, I think I have a suggestion for another series revival to help make the Summer more fun. Perhaps a certain Whedon scifi western?

Via [Entertainment Weekly]

Leonardo DiCaprio as The Great Gatsby didn’t have the power to unseat Tony Stark from first, but DiCaprio still managed to real in almost 66% of Iron Man 3 in second place. Pain and Gain dropped to third, earning just over $5 million, which can tell you how the rest of the box office faired. Tyler Perry’s latest, Peeples, arrived in fourth, just barely ahead of 42 in fifth. Both Oblivion and The Croods stumbled two places a piece to find themselves in sixth and seventh, while Mud was pushed down one spot into eighth. At the bottom of the list rested The Big Wedding in ninth, dropping three, and Oz The Great and Powerful in tenth, dropping two.

The Summer of Moviegeddon 2013 bumps up to Warp 10 this Thursday with the arrival of Star Trek Into Darkness, as well as the (second) release of Aaron Eckhart’s Erased on Friday. You can definitely expect a review of Star Trek Into Darkness Thursday morning. May, aka the month of awesome, will continue to roll out more for you to see, so stay cool moviegoers.

Steven Moffat is a fan of giving Doctor Who fans more Doctor Who. He’s been doing this in the form of minisode prequels for major episodes, such as “Pond Life” before the premiere episode of this series, the Christmas special, the return of the series, and now before the finale. In the latest prequel, Clara and the Doctor talk about each other. About the things they’ve learned and will come to learn, as they make their journey to Trenzalore. Check it out.

So many questions and so many answers that lead to more questions. It all comes to fruition this Saturday with the finale of Doctor Who‘s seventh series.

The awesomeness that is May (and this Monday morning) continues with the first trailer for the return of Arrested Development for its fourth season, exclusive to Netflix. The Bluths are back, and all of their new episodes will be available instantly on May 26, which is thankfully a Sunday so you don’t have to call in sick to work. Check out what the Bluths have been up to in the trailer below.

It looks like the same old Bluths, and that’s just what we’ve all been waiting for. Don’t make a huge mistake, and be sure to catch up on Arrested Development by May 26. It’s closer than you think.