Before J.J. Abrams took his light saber and carved out a new chapter in the Star Wars saga. He was using his Vulcun mind meld technique to reboot the Star Trek series. With a brand new cast as the original characters. They created a film that was both enjoyable for new fans to the series, but also didn’t piss off any hardcore loyal fans. O.K. I’m sure it did piss off a few people, but my friends who love the show enjoyed the movie. Hell, most of you got so called critics got so mad about the damn Ghostbusters reboot that you had to make videos and write posts about how angry you were before the movie was even released. I have more of a rant about this, but I’ll save that for a different day.
The 2009 redux of Star Trek was a lot of fun and while it was light on the more heavy scientific themes that were presented in the show I thought the characters were a lot of fun. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto were exact dopplegangers to William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy’s Captain James T. Kirk and Spock. Not to mention, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Simon Pegg as Scotty and the late Alton Yelchin as Checkov. Everyone was just perfectly cast in their roles. It may be creative or lazy of Abrams and his writing team to have this series exist in an alternate time line. I don’t mind that it addresses that issue but it felt completely non important to me. The only thing that felt a bit off was to have Uhura as Spock’s girlfriend. I just never saw that character as one with that sort of drive. I always thought Spock was Asexual. The story is your basic origin story and the villain played by Eric Bana was not all that exciting. This was still a fun movie and one I would rewatch again. Unline the 2nd one in the series, Into Darkness. AKA Wrath of Khan Redux.
Here are my thoughts back in 2013 when I first watched this for the late Videovanguard site.
This was basically Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but with more people running, big action scenes, and unnecessary plot twists. It doesn’t have the same level of fun and charm that the first one had.In that one it was established that they would go on to new adventures different from that of the original series. Yet if that’s true. Why are they rehashing elements from the best movie in the franchise.
I thought Benedict Cumberbatch was an excellent villain, and he had legitimate reasons for doing what he did, which makes him all that more interesting. I just wish that story took his character in better places instead of just rehasing the same thing that was seen before. Plus switching certain characters around for an important moment near the end seemed unnecessary. How that gets resolved is just plain dumb.
A good friend of mine named Aaron Hanson who owns the Bunsen Brewer(Seriously check this place out. It’s both a bar and a lab that shows it’s patrons how beer is created. Just click on the name to view the site). He once wrote for the same Videovanguard site I mentioned earlier a much better story of the events in part 2. Check it out. (apologies if certain sections appear smaller then others)
Following the destruction of Vulcan, space traffic changes and Khan’s ship is discovered by Orion slavers.
They sell the crew to the Klingons to work in their mines. Khan quickly finds his true home among the warlike and honor-bound Klingons and rises to power. He is not happy with Earth for setting him adrift in space, and is angry about the crew of the Botany Bay that didn’t survive. He takes revenge on Earth and the Orion slavers.
Following the volcano stunt, Kirk gets demoted to Starfleet intelligence to cool his heels planet side. The Klingons are acting different. They’ve mostly wiped out the Orion sector and are expanding their borders at an alarming rate. Kirk’s partner at Starfleet Intelligence is Khan. He’s using assumed name, Noonien or something. He claims to be from the 21st century, having been in cryosleep (similar to the people in The Neutral Zone TNG episode).
Meanwhile, Spock in command of the Enterprise is at the Klingon front, assisting with rescues and gathering intelligence. He sees a pattern in these attacks, and compares the fleet movement to some of the greatest generals of history.
Noonien flees to the Klingon homeworld Quonos using the transwarp beaming device. Kirk fakes orders from Starfleet Command to the Enterprise to put him in command, and uses the transwarp beaming device to get to the Enterprise. He essentially steals the Enterprise. They battle their way to Quonos to get Noonien. They get there and are captured and dragged in front of the High Council. Kirk and Spock ask Khan in disguise (who is running the high council) for Noonien. Khan says something and Kirk figures out that he’s Noonien. Kirk challenges Khan in front of the Klingon High Council. They fight. During the fight, Kirk exposes Khan by pulling off his makeup forehead. He exposes Khan as having no honor and tricking the Klingons. The fight continues, Kirk loses. Khan’s about to kill Kirk, but suddenly a knife appears through the back of his chest. Khan falls.
I apologize to all you readers, but I did not get a chance to view the 3rd one in the series. Sometimes work can just get in the way of writing and when I don’t always get the chance to see most things. I will however share a few reviews that other people have written.
Brittani – Rambling Film
http://ramblingfilm.blogspot.com/2016/07/review-star-trek-beyond.html
Keith – Keith & the Movies
Tom- Plain, Simple TomReviews
Stu – Last Picture Blog
Cool Trek post! I love what Abrams did with this franchise, and I’ll admit I actually still like Into Darkness more than most. Even so, I rather wish we could have seen that alternate storyline played out. That would have switched things up from both Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country, with an extra nod to Next Gen. What might have been… I’m looking forward to seeing the third one too, eventually.
The 3rd one is a bit intriguing, and to be honest it has been a while since I have seen the 2nd one. Once the 3rd one reaches home. I will need to see them all again, Thanks for visiting