As many readers will know, I am by no means a sci-fi fan. I can watch Star Wars quite happily (obviously the original versions), but usually anything involving science fiction makes my eyes glaze over...
About two years ago, I was talked into watching the first re-booted Star Trek and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the film was fast-paced and engaging. The characters were interesting and 'real'. It was a great popcorn film.
Fast forward to 2013 and the long-awaited sequel is here... Will it be any good...?
Fortunately, it is more of the same. The story is somewhat formulaic, good guy goes bad to prevent disaster, creates bad guy, bad guy goes rogue and the other good guys make everything OK.
So while the story is predictable (and contains lots of references to previous Star Trek films and episodes which I was not aware of, but my Trekkie companion was very pleased to see), the action is brilliantly done and keeps you on the edge of your seats, the genuinely funny and touching relationship between James Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) will make you smile and the 'good vs bad' battle makes the 133 minutes of this film zip along nicely.
Add to this, the unexpectedly excellent performance of Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison/Khan and the film is onto a winner. I say unexpectedly as I've never considered Cumberbatch to be a particularly physical performer (most of the roles that he plays tends to focus on intellectual strength), but my goodness, he can play a bad action man role with aplomb... And I hope he considers other roles of this nature in the future.
Anything that I didn't like? I didn't like the way some action scenes were cut away to another, unrelated scene. I'm not sure if this was deliberate, but it did effect the flow of the film at times. But this is really nit-picking as the film was lots of fun and would appeal to Trekkies and non-trekkies alike.
Verdict: Excellent performances from all main characters, particularly Cumberbatch. A formulaic storyline, but the action scenes and the genuinely lovely relationship between Spock and Kirk more than made up for it. A fantastic popcorn film.
