The first question I was asked after I walked out of Star Trek Into Darkness was not, “Was it good?” but rather “How good was it?” After 2009’s glorious reboot of the iconic sci-fi series Star Trek, with JJ Abrams directing Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock, the expectations for the sequel were high. Very, very high. Over the previous decade, Star Trek had wandered into the darkness: the original cast and movies of the 60s, 70s, and 80s (with William Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock) had given way to the celebrated TV series “Next Generation,” and the less so “Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager,” and “Enterprise.” The movies based on the “Next Generation” cast started out fine, and then not so much, and the last one, 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, was a dud, earning $67 million, a sixth the box office of what JJ Abrams’s reboot did. Abrams, who co-created Lost, Fringe, and Alias and has been tapped to – gasp! – reboot Star Wars, is a great science fiction filmmaker; his Star Trek was thrilling, gorgeous, epic, and perfectly cast, particularly Quinto as Spock. So, how good was it sequel? Very, very good. Continue…