Early Star Trek Reviews — Both Thrilled with Cumberbatch — Both Have Minor Spoilers!

londonphile:

“What this film has over 2009’s Star Trek is Benedict Cumberbatch. Now, Cumberbatch fans are similar to fans of Sam or Dean from TV’s Supernatural; they obsess over him. Many write fan fiction. In this case, it’s fair enough because Cumberbatch is awesome. He’s a bad guy. I’m not going to say what bad guy, neither confirming nor denying the K-theory – and he’s an excellent villain. He out-bads Eric Bana. He’s handsome, strong, threatening and utterly convincing as a hugely smart adversary to Kirk and his team. He steals the show, possessing a voice eerily similar to that of Patrick Stewart.”

Source: Star Trek Into Darkness review - Story - Entertainment - 3 News http://www.3news.co.nz/Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-review/tabid/418/articleID/295304/Default.aspx#ixzz2RI58KKkf

And

“But it’s with John Harrison that the film truly ignites. The narrative weaves around him like a weasel, teasing us with his ambiguous loyalties and indeed, his ambiguous identity. It is he who tempers the film’s cheesy humour and lends it its brutality. While mostly bloodless, I was surprised at the skin-on-skin ferocity of some of the fight scenes he is featured in.Cumberbatch himself has never been better. While he’s proven his ability at volatile emotional-detachment with his role in Sherlock, he is, here, a true snake; an expressionless, sliver of a man whose mask only slips when he lunges for his prey. The Enterprise crew look trivial against him, their uniforms retro and goofy against his men’s magazine sleekness. Even Spock, quite the regal figure, looks small next to him.”
Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/23/star-trek-into-darkness-igns-review