On Friday, Paramount dropped the new trailer for the latest installment of the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek Beyond.
Packed with a lot more action and character detail than the last trailer, this time we get a good look at the chief villain, Krall, played by Idris Elba under layers of evil looking alien makeup. Can you feel the Elba charisma shining through all that scary makeup? Sort of. But not really. Krall could be any of hundreds of qualified actors.
Why they decided to hide one of the most well known and loved faces under pounds of makeup is a mystery, especially since in earlier promos Elba appeared in front of the cast in his human form. Pro tip, Hollywood: If a widely admired leading man makes time to join your geek-friendly movie, don't hide the hunky goods.
In addition to the usual smug-cool-while-defying death scenes from Kirk, Bones and Spock, we also get a look at newcomer Sofia Boutella (StreetDance 2, Kingsman: The Secret Service) who plays Jaylah, an alien warrior character whose fighting style takes advantage of Boutella's well known dance pedigree.
Overall, this looks like a solid entry in the Star Trek series, helmed by a worthy lensman in Justin Lin. However, with the film's executive producer J.J. Abrams also focused on developing the Star Wars universe, it's hard not to feel like Star Trek has been relegated to also-ran status. Abrams will give us Trekkies our basic sci-fi nom noms, but no one's expecting anything groundbreaking from Star Trek as long as it has to share his brain space with the epic task that is Star Wars.
Topics Star Trek
