Stardate 2263.2: Three years into the Enterprise‘s five-year mission, and shortly after barely escaping from a diplomatic mission gone terribly wrong, Captain Kirk is experiencing career ennui, to the point that he’s considering seeking a promotion to Vice Admiral, which would take him off the bridge and put him at a desk. Even a visit to the Federation’s most advanced starbase, Yorktown, doesn’t lift Kirk’s spirits, but the Yorktown’s recovery of an alien refugee in a life pod gets his interest. The Enterprise and her crew set off to help find the alien’s crew, stranded on a planet in an inpenetrable nebula, only to fly into a coordinated ambush. The Enterprise is severely damaged and boarded by legions of aliens, led by Krall, who wants an artifact left over from Kirk’s diplomatic mission gone awry. Kirk orders all hands to abandon ship, but Krall’s allies capture the Enterprise life pods and the crew is taken to a planet within the nebula and held hostage; the Enterprise herself is destroyed. Scott meets a woman named Jaylah, who is unafraid of Krall’s followers but has no wish to take him on personally. Jaylah lives in the wreckage of the U.S.S. Franklin, a missing NX-class ship which apparently crashed on this planet, and Scotty begins working to restore the ship to fighting condition. That suits Kirk just fine, as he intends to free his crew and defeat Krall before the alien can use the artifact to power up a devastating weapon. Krall’s first target: Yorktown.
screenplay by Simon Pegg & Doug Jung
directed by Justin Lin
music by Michael Giacchino
Cast: Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Idris Elba (Krall), Sofia Boutella (Jaylah), Joe Taslim (Manas), Lydia Wilson (Kalara), Deep Roy (Keenser), Melissa Roxburgh (Ensign Syl), Anita Brown (Tyvanna), Doug Jung (Ben), Danny Pudi (Fi’Ja), Kim Kold (Zavanko), Fraser Aitcheson (Hider), Matthew MacCaull (Blue Shirt), Emy Aneke (Blue Shirt), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Commodore Paris), Greg Grunberg (Commander Finnegan), Jennifer Cheon (Control Tower Technician), Jarod Joseph (Control Tower Technician), Jeremy Raymond (Control Tower Technician), Harry Han (Kissing Guy), Gina Brinkman (Kissing Girl), Adam DiMarco (Injured Red Shirt), Fiona Vroom (Orion Girl), Richard Laurence (Chancellor Ambassador), Doug Chapman (Sir Olden), Dan Payne (Wadjet), Anthony Shim (Jin), Andrea Yu (Jeanine), Shea Whigham (Teenaxi Leader), Christian Sloan (Jae), Jake Huang (Krall’s Henchman), Priya Rajaratnam (Night Watch Captain), Luka Hays (Enterprise Crew), Thomas Cadrot (Enterprise Crew), Jennifer W. Evans (Enterprise Crew), Roxanne Fernandes (Enterprise Crew), Jake Foy (Enterprise Crew), Jodi Haynes (Enterprise Crew), Nathan Jean (Enterprise Crew), Tarun Keram (Enterprise Crew), J.P. Mulcaster (Enterprise Crew), Edwin Rodriguez (Enterprise Crew), Alex Rose (Enterprise Crew), Polina Nikolai (Enterprise Crew), Lia Lam (Enterprise Crew), Ian Nsenga (Enterprise Crew), Ashley Edner (Natalia), Sara Maria Forsberg (Kalara Alien voice), Jeff Bezos (Starfleet Official)
Notes: As the extensive “in-universe” notes for this movie may constitute major spoilers, they appear below the review.
LogBook entry and review by Earl Green