Why I Saw It: The last one was such a delight and this one looked likely to continue the trend
Cast: Chris Pine is a pretty amazing Kirk in my opinion. He can never be Bill Shatner, and he knows it. He makes the role his own while still feeling true to the captain we all know. Zachary Quinto is doing a fine job making Spock his own as well. Why don't we see more of him in other movies? Speaking of that, remember when Zoe Saldana was everywhere? When can that start back up? And I don't mean Avatar. Now, I haven't done the math, but Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin don't seem as front and center this time around. I get that it's about managing resources. Still, I like them greatly. Alice Eve is definitely a welcome addition to the cast. I've always enjoyed her. She is surprisingly underused for someone they are introducing, in my opinion. Lastly, there's Benedict Cumberbatch. He makes a great villain. He's one of those people who seems like a natural for it.
Plot: This is where I admit that I haven't seen any of the movies with the original cast in so long that I might as well say I haven't seen them at all. So, I can only speak to how well this works by itself. It was really linear. I assumed a lot of the beats, which is only a negative if you show up expecting more than an action sci-fi piece of summer fun. It is quite effective though. Exciting and fun almost the whole time. Since this reboot is not tied to a specific series like the previous iterations, it is allowed to create something new yet use what is already known to its benefit.
Elephant in the Room: What about Khan? I figure that anyone who cares about knowing who Cumberbatch is already knows and anyone who doesn't care will obviously now care that I mention it now. As I mentioned already, all I remember about The Wrath of Khan is what belongs in pop culture public domain and even still I think that Cumberbatch wasn't able to (or allowed to, I'm not sure which) pull off the epic villain presence that comes with being Khan.I think only future movies will tell whether that's because this was only an introduction or if it was in fact a disappointing use of him.
A WTF Moment: I'm all for scantily clad women and all that in my movies so I can't complain, but I'm still not seeing the point of the scene that has been used in a lot of the previews in which Carol changes in front of Kirk. I assume there is a later hookup there, but that stuck me as pretty shameless. Did I miss some context there?
To Sum Things Up:
This movie lacked the relative element of surprise that made the last one so buzzworthy. Additionally, one of JJ Abrams' greatest strengths is how he builds up the hype to his projects throughout the production. The danger with something like Star Trek, especially when you throw the word "Khan" into the mix is that it becomes nearly impossible to deliver something to match said hype. Personally, I really liked this and found it significantly better than Iron Man 3, for instance, but I think this is one of those sequels that simply isn't able to top its predecessor. Luckily, it doesn't ruin the series either. It's a slight dip, but not one make me think the next one couldn't potentially be the best yet. Geez, I'm rambling...
To Really Sum Things Up:
If you like action movies, science fiction, anything that comes from JJ Abrams, or summer popcorn fun, this should meet your needs. Besides, I don't see anything coming in the next few weeks that I expect to be better for sheer entertainment value.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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