J.J Abrams and his team gave us probably the best re-boot to any film possible with the cleverest story-line possible. Four years later saw the release of Into Darkness. While a group of people did not like it as they saw it as a re-hash of one of their favourites 'The Wrath Of Khan'. I still found it to be highly entertained and on the whole a very good film and one of the best films of that year.
The build-up and marketing for it initially was not promising. With Justin Lin directing, the trailer definitely had the tone of a Fast & Furious film, and many did not want the franchise to turn that way. Since then, it has thankfully improved and my expectations improved. But I was still unsure if it would even come to being as good as the previous two.
In a summer where virtually all of the big budget summer blockbusters have failed to be a huge success. You can always rely on Star Trek to give us something positive to talk about as this was a lot of fun.
This franchise continues to give us a great amount of fun, and that everyone has a blast watching it. It is certainly what you want out of a summer film. That warm and positive feeling you get from it has become a rare one with big budget films these days.
Unlike the previous two, it does take a while to fully invest in this. The first act was pretty solid. But I wasn't going nuts for it. The second act moved it up a few notches and I was beginning to get behind this. Then the final act brought everything together and ended up really enjoying it.
I love the respect this modern franchise has for its predecessors and with it being released on its 50th anniversary makes this a real celebration of this cult phenomenon. There were even some pretty emotional moments in this film that pay respect to the original cast which was nice to see.
The performances are still as entertaining. You can really feel them working as a team. Chris Pine still has that nice mix of Williams Schatner's performance and his own. Zachary Quinto might not have been at his best as Spock. But it is still thoroughly entertaining. Karl Urban was given a well deserved amount of screen-time. His performance as Bones always steals the show for me and all of that has given him a great amount of development in this one.
While the franchise has regularly looked at the relationship with Kirk and Spock. This one seems to concentrate on another character relationship that Trek fans will know well. While the development of Kirk and Spock have their moments. It was nice to see another duo take centre stage.
Simon Pegg and John Cho have their moments which is always a nice treat. Zoe Saldana was side-lined a bit in this one so it was tough to give an opinion on her performance. As for Anton Yelchin. It was always a tough watch whenever he was on screen. But he was given a great amount in the story and contributed nicely.
Idris Elba was a real surprise in the end. He was threatening and bad-ass throughout. But it was only until the final act when I felt him to be a memorable villain with real purpose and intent and be a well-rounded character in this film that I can believe in. Star Trek films seem to have pretty good or solid villains for all their films. With a lot of superhero films creating unmemorable villains. They should definitely take not from this franchise on how to do villains.
Another great new addition was Sofia Boutella's character. I saw promise in her in 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' and she was as bad-ass in Star Trek. I loved the make-up and design of her character and she has great moments of both action and comedy. She certainly never over-stayed her welcome and I would happily see her in more sequels.
I was glad to see Justin Lin prove me wrong. I was expecting to see too much Fast & Furious. In the end, you can see he had some guidance from other members of his team that have been part of the franchise. He treated this franchise with respect and never went over-the-top with the action that may have looked out of place.
Despite all this praise, it is probably my least favourite of the new ones. The first act is not strong or visceral enough to compete with the 2009 release and Into Darkness. It takes a while to get fully invested in. So I would be patient with this one. But it has terrific end results and is as entertaining as any other Star Trek film.
I must mention that when you go and see it at the cinema, stay for the first part of the credits to pay tribute to the lives of Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin.
Rating: 8/10
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