I was very reluctant to watch this movie after J.J. managed to utterly destroy the franchise until I stepped over it on Amazon Prime. I dared to watch it and I was pleasantly surprised. Amidst lots of action and explosions Justin Lin takes the time to develop the characters as well as their relationships. Simon Pegg and the other authors managed to create a genuine Star Trek story that pays a lot of respect to the original franchise, the fans and the original actors. It seems that in this installment the main actors have "found" their characters, their own approach, yet they managed to give us at least a hint of the original performances. Especially Chris Pine convinced me with a much more mature James T. Kirk with a lot of William Shatner moves. Idris Elba managed to give the main villain character an extraordinary depth, leading up to his reveal and demise perfectly.
A movie that is a very respectful homage to 50 years of Star Trek, entertaining and with a few nice twists. And a step away from stupid western gunmen of the previous movies, back to an ingenious trio that smarts out the bad guys of the galaxy. And believe it or not - the movie even had a Star Trek theme.
So that's how it's done: Dump that overgrown child without any imagination, hire a real director and some decent writers and you have a good franchise movie.
A movie that is a very respectful homage to 50 years of Star Trek, entertaining and with a few nice twists. And a step away from stupid western gunmen of the previous movies, back to an ingenious trio that smarts out the bad guys of the galaxy. And believe it or not - the movie even had a Star Trek theme.
So that's how it's done: Dump that overgrown child without any imagination, hire a real director and some decent writers and you have a good franchise movie.