Simon Pegg. Beastie Boys. Chris Pine’s raspy ramble. Spock’s raised eyebrows. Bones being annoyed. Explosions. And an alien woman who’s human from the neck down. Yup, it’s a trailer for Star Trek alright.
Watching the trailer for Star Trek Beyond (slated for release July 22, 2016) while in the theatre on the premiere night of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I had a thought likely to be shared by most movie-goers and possibly J.J. Abrams himself: Can we just get Star Trek out of the way so we can get more Star Wars?
It’s not a great sign for an already flagging series. In a recent interview with Buzzfeed, Abrams pointed out that Star Trek: Into Darkness didn’t have the narrative base he would’ve liked. “Any movie, any story has a fundamental conversation happening during it. There’s a fundamental argument; there’s a central question. And I didn’t have it.” This is monumentally humble of Abrams to admit, and hopefully will reflect change to the coming movie that the trailer just doesn’t present to us. There isn’t much offered here in the way of character or artistic development, and is just a US flag short of going completely Michael Bay. However, it is just a trailer.
It will be interesting to see how the writers plan to right the (star)ship. The 2009 Star Trek made over $100 million dollars, while the second was just short of $40 million (numbers taken from BoxOfficeMojo.com).