First, the Recap:
Space. The final frontier. Picking up 3 years into the destiny-driven starship Enterprise’s new 5-year mission, life for the stalwart crew–Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine), Cmdr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Lt. Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekov (Anton Yelchin)–has settled into routine and the usual bantering until an unyielding alien force, led by the strongly determined Krall (Idris Elba), more than makes its presence known and creates mass chaos for the Enterprise and crew. Ultimately trapped on an unforgiving planet, Kirk and crew, along with new ally Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), strive to seek a way to escape their ruthless captor who has even more diabolical designs in mind for the Federation and its people.
Worth Seeing: YES
Serving as a producer this time around, J.J. Abrams turns the director’s chair over to “Fast & Furious 4, 5, & 6” helmer Justin Lin, and the results are magnificent. Still not sacrificing character-centered narrative for the sake of non-stop action, Lin’s deft style is evident here as we as viewers are once again engaged by the new adventures of the classic, reinvented Enterprise and her crew. Beautifully shot visuals lend both grounded and fantastical eye candy throughout, and you will never listen to the Beastie Boys hit “Sabotage” the same way again. The returning cast is fresh and fun, per what we’ve been experiencing with this rebooted series, and newcomers Elba and Boutella each contribute excellent characters to the mix. It’s more fun than a bag full of Tribbles! Plus, brief but apropos tributes to fallen cast members Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
Howard and I cannot wait to see this. Thank you for the review. Love that you are back to reviewing Blockbuster films. Hugs
Hey, Trina!
I finally realized that I could manage to fit in reviewing the Hollywood-based efforts I view in this abbreviated, but ideally still effective, format and that it would be even better for readers who just want that basic, straight-forward synopsis and opinion in only 250-300 words that might assist them in making a decision to or to not see something! So, I too am glad I am choosing to move forward in that respect with major releases while I can still devote another chunk of time to the indie film world, as that is actually where I’ve made all the connections I have and why my site is on the map in the ways it is! Hugs back! 🙂