Did you ever watch the animated series “The Muppet Babies” in which Kermit, Fozzie Bay and friends are re-imagined as toodlers? Well, that’s the entire Star Trek reboot write large. This is Spock Kirk, Bones, Scottie and company concept. Before Captain Kirk was the wise Captain of the first series, what was he? Seeing Kirk hit on every intergallectic babe in “Star Trek: Into Darkness” (a meaningless title), or waking up in bed with two cat girls with large tails and tons of sass, or Spock tackle battle his human urges and fail quite often, the concept is really quite effective.
JJ Abrams rethinking of the Star Trek myth might not work for the uber-fan, it is a little too casual in its dealing with the myths, but for the casual fan, it is pretty good the second time round.
Kirk (a dashing Chris Pine) is in search for the maniac who killed his mentor in an unprovoked attack. They go off to the neutral zone on the precipices of the Klingon empire where the cryogen Khan -the BBC America Sherlock Holmes star Benedict Cumberbatch nicely underplaying compared to Ricardo Montalban, helps them escape in a one damn thing after another action packed story where both Kirk and Spock (Zachary Quinto, who looks awful -what the hell? Put down the damn donuts. Who wants a pudgy Spock?) save each others lifes.
The complaint is the 3D sucks and really way too many IMAX’d out head shots. It all looks very cheesy but this is a “B” movie (that’s what we used to call summer spectaculars. Despite the terrible movie name, this Star Trek does no more and no less than it sets out to, keep the franchises alive while letting us giggle over the Muppet Babies. Quick shout out to Alice White in her undies… in IMAX 3D.
Music? Not much. There’s a scene in a disco with what sounded like house in the background and at the end the familiar Star Trek music is stirring enough. Soundtrack composed by Michael Giacchino.
Movie: B
Soundtrack: C