Star Trek

Action Style

Justin Lin knows how to pack in the action as everything plus the kitchen sink is present in this film.  Starship combat, laser gun battles, martial arts, vehicles chases.  Wow, it really is Fast and Furious in space!

5/6

Action Frame

Lin and cinematographer Stephen Windon find lots of neat ways to keep the frame moving at all times with plenty of dynamic angles to go around.  Sure, space gives great context with its Z-axis, but this is continuously demonstrated on planetary systems during expertly choreographed stunt work sequences.

5/5

Lead Performance

Chris Pine’s Kirk is featured more singularly than Zachary Quinto’s Spock this time around and while both do decent enough jobs portraying their individual characters, it is their chemistry as a duo that either fizzles out or never existed from the very first film.

3/6

Supporting Performance

Consummate comic relief in Simon Pegg’s Scotty is playful, Zoe Saldana’s Uhura is more of a prop, John Cho and Anton Yelchin’s Sulu and Chekov are effective sidekicks and Karl Urban’s Bones McCoy is the only one worthy of bringing a snide smile to your face.  BUT, yet another flat villain with a shoehorned back story that gets thrown in the audience’s faces during the 2 minute warning of the final act is yet another example of bad villains breaking movies.    

2/5

Music

Great use of original orchestrations of this new version of Star Trek in addition to the application of “classical” music.

5/6

Sound F/X

Equally great sound work on display for explosions, tech, weapons and spaceships.

4/5

Digital F/X

Top marks here.  Visual effects are absolutely pristine and rival just about anything out of the Star Wars camp and they have Mickey Mouse money to pay for everything!

6/6

Special F/X

For as much digital reality that’s being thrown about, there also a ton of stunt work that’s on display.  This requires an extremely healthy amount of wire work and practical effects and both are integrated quite seamlessly.  

4/5

Costumes

I’ve still not been taken in by the bright colors and bland textures and functionality of the new Starfleet uniforms, but the alien designs somewhat make up for it.

4/6

Hair & Makeup

See above.  Sofia Boutella’s Jaylah character seems to serve one purpose and one purpose only: to show another way to present exotic, sexy, alien women without having to resort to cleavage.

3/5

Exteriors

From space to planetary-scapes, exterior locations are vast, well dressed and designed.

5/6

Interiors

Is it possible that any film can suffer from too much attention to detail regarding set design?  I haven’t found that to be the case yet.

4/5

Hook

Captain Kirk is bored as a Captain in Starfleet?  I guess he wasn’t told all of his duties didn’t exclusively involve punching alien overlords in the face to save humanity.  I guess he needs another go to reinvigorate himself.

1/4

Conflict

Again, evil alien overlord wants to kill humanity.  Yawn.

1/4

Resolution

We know the good guys are going to win, but is it ever possible for them to do so while suffering some form of permanent loss?  No?  Ok.

2/4

Dialogue

Trek jargon?  Check.  Crew banter?  Check.  Bones McCoy?  Check.

5/6

Exposition

We really could have used some information on the primary antagonist much earlier in the film to give some depth to an “I’ll kill you all!” villain.  Throwing it in at the very end as a surprise twist is not satisfying, it’s trolling.

2/5

Character Uniqueness

By now, I would have expected our crew of the Enterprise to distinguish themselves from the originals beyond light remixes and Spock really came close in previous films only to revert to reliable first officer in Beyond.  Sulu kind of had a moment, but that apparently upset Mr. George Takei.  

3/6

Character Relatability

This is Karl Urban’s category as his character regularly calls out his fellow crewmen not just for the absurdity of their stances in certain situations, but also for what his own is called upon to do.  I still don’t connect with Kirk’s boredom, but he clearly needs a hobby.  Even Picard had Earl Grey, archeology, literature and his flute.

2/5