Justin Lin can bring the kinetic energy that Paramount wants. Is that what Star Trek fans want? Star Trek really isn’t a franchise that became beloved for its Fast and the Furious vibe (Space and the Spurious?)
At least this looks to be delivering new alien races to play a larger role than just being set dressing. Of course, if Star Trek cinematic history stays true, these could be old alien races with different make-up jobs, and that will just annoy me.
I think this is Idris Elba under the main alien make-up — “the frontier pushes back” — and if Simon Pegg and Doug Jung have written an interesting villain, we can go thumbs up on this.
But it’s time to admit that this isn’t Star Trek as we knew it — not the series we knew, not the original cast we loved — and consider it something else that just bears the same name. I’m not saying it’s going to be bad; we just may no longer be able to support Star Trek as we knew it in today’s blockbuster environment. This looks like something big and loud that might be fun — but it won’t provoke thought in the same way.
