Orion,_battle_spaceship
This installment of Star Trek is produced by J. J. Abrams, directed by Justin Lin and written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. For anyone who’s new to the series, Star Trek was originally created as a TV series in 1966 by Gene Roddenberry. This was the thirteenth film in the Star Trek film franchise and it’s distributed by Paramount. It’s dedicated to Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, both of whom died while the film was in production.

After an ambassadorial mission goes wrong, the Enterprise puts in to the space city of Yorktown. Kirk is experiencing a crisis of faith in the mission and Spock has resolved to leave Starfleet and take Spock Prime’s place as Federation Ambassador. A survivor named Kalara arrives from a stranded ship and the Enterprise is dispatched on a rescue mission that turns out to be a trap. The Enterprise is destroyed by a swarm fleet directed by Krall, who wants an alien biological weapon that Kirk recently obtained. The ship breaks apart, the crew abandons ship, and the remains crash onto the planet Altamid. On the planet’s surface, Scotty finds Jaylah, who shows him the remains of the crashed USS Franklin. The two of them repair the transporter and locate Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Krall has the rest of the crew, and he tortures individuals until he gets the artifact he wants. He then sets off for Yorktown, meaning to release the weapon there to get revenge against the Federation for old affronts.

This was quite watchable. The characters are familiar and the interplay was entertaining enough that it got some laughs from the audience. This installment eased up a little on the breakneck pace of the last movie, and we got some quiet moments where Kirk and McCoy steal Sulu’s stash of spirits and drink to Kirk’s birthday. The action rises sharply once they’re into the trap, and the film ends with a fantastical chase and then a slightly sentimental wrap. On the negative side, this (like all the reboot films) requires a huge suspension of disbelief. It’s full of plot holes and bad science that even the fast pace can’t cover up. Cinematography was dark, and some of the action was hard to follow. I expect the initial sequence was for comedic effect, but I’m still surprised at the heavy-handedness. Kirk’s staff should have done enough research to prevent him from offending the aliens, who were then also disrespected by the crew. And, dang, this crew is hard on star ships.

Three stars.