The crew of the USS Enterprise return after a 'successful' mission to a Class M planet. Only for them to return to Earth where London has been attacked and then to be thrown into the midst of an attack at the heart of Star Fleet. Leaving Captain Kirk to lead a mission to seek and destroy the man who led the attack in the one place where the Federation is not welcome.
Review
The film opens with a daring rescue mission to save a primitive culture and Spock at the same time leading to a conflict in the Prime Directive where Starfleet is not allowed to interfere in other cultures affairs. The film certainly starts off with a bang and the colours add to the vividness and alien nature of another world. It's also interesting and surprising to see the USS Enterprise in a planetary environment rather than in deep space.
During this mission Starfleet is attacked in London by a renegade Starfleet operative, John Harrison. Who also leads an audacious attack on Starfleet headquarters.
It is after the mission where Kirk's leadership is called into question and after the attack on Starfleet Headquarters. Kirk does some soul searching which leads to a change in his style of leadership and values.
From here on it is a roller coaster of action and adventure to the farthest edges of the Federation into unwelcome alien territory during their hunt for John Harrison.
This is very much a JJ Abrams film with lots of action and fight scenes interspersed with some character moments to allow for some audience emotional attachment to the film's characters.
Chris Pine gives another great performance as Kirk. At the start of the film he is still the same old Kirk from the last film arrogant and a bit of a ladies man but later on we see a change and he takes on the mantle of his Captaincy seriously for the first time. Zachary Quinto gives another fine Spock performance. Simon Pegg in this film as Scotty is given much more to do than previously and in a way he is given his own mission which is fun and adds to the film. For me the best bits for comedy relief came from Karl Urban as Doctor "Bones" McCoy with his unending metaphors for death and probabilities of outcomes. Alice Eve as Dr Carol Marcus and Zoey Salanda as Uhura do good jobs from limited material. It just seems that Chekov ( Anton Yelchin) and Sulu ( John Cho) are kind of relegated and not given as much screen time.
The best part of this film is Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison the villain of this piece. He is cold, calculating, aloof and measured which gives him all the more presence and menace to his role. Though he does lose it to show he is human after all. Here we have a worthy adversary to Kirk who is every bit his equal and more.
There is another cameo in this film from a member of the original cast.
The first film was good but felt restrained as it was a re-boot and had to be an origins film. At the end of the first it allowed the franchise to go in any direction. Now freed from these shackles this is a worthy sequel and the film has got off to an adrenaline pumped up sprint which does not leave the confines of the Star Trek universe too much and pays homage to the previous Star Trek films of the original cast.
This is a very good sequel which surpasses the first film by a long shot. It has left me baying for more and the next film it cannot come too soon in my mind but I am curious to which direction and what story the next film will take. This begs the question of when and will JJ Abrams return after his next film with the Star Wars franchise.
9/10
