Chris Pine Zachary Quinto Karl Urban Simon Pegg John Cho Zoe Saldana
Anton Yelchin Idris Elba Sofia Boutella Lydia Wilson
After three years in space, the crew of the USS
Enterprise is getting a bit antsy.
Captain Kirk (Pine) applies for the job of vice admiral because he’s a
bit bored, those with families are feeling the separation, and Chief Engineer
Scottie (Pegg) is dithering about budget problems. Suddenly, an escape pod appears, and its occupant, Kalara
(Wilson) requests Captain Kirk’s help after an alien warlord attacked her ship
and captured her crew.
In all good faith, the Enterprise heads to the
crippled ship, only to find out it is a trap. The remainder of the story entails taking on the warlord at
great risk, suffering severe threats and requiring all the ingenuity, tactics,
and memory the captain and his crew can muster simply to survive.
They
do encounter an ally in Jaylah (Boutella) when she saves Scotty from soldiers
about to capture him. Her people were
already captured and killed by the warlord Krall (Elba). Much to Scotty’s surprise, she has come
upon the Federation’s missing USS Franklin, making it her home, and ingeniously
getting key equipment up and running.
Moreover, she has the ability to put a hologram around it to conceal it.
Star Trek
fans will be thrilled with the returning cast from previous films, like Pine,
Quinto, Saldana, Pegg, Urban, Cho, and Yelchin (sadly, Yelchin died earlier
this year in an accident). Beloved
Spock actor, Leonard Nimoy also passed away this year, and tributes are made to
both in the film. Two new key
figures have been introduced, played by Elba (Krall) and Boutella
(Jaylah).
All the actors kindle the human/bot dramas into a warm and glowing
fire, but the film is almost completely overrun by warring
spectacles—including, of course, the obligatory hand-to-hand combat. (How I wish filmmakers of blockbuster
movies would eliminate this completely unnecessary motif, particularly in the
context of futuristic technology).
The special effects are impressive, but it’s too bad they overpower
interesting stories. This feature
clearly marks the influence of Director Justin Lin, known for his The Fast and the Furious action
films. Many will prefer such a
hyped up version, whereas the rest of us are more focused on human drama.
A fast and furious rendition of the
Star Trek franchise.
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