This is the one that finally cracked it. The setup is stubbornly simple: the Enterprise gets torn apart, the crew scatters across a hostile planet, and everyone has to claw their way back to each other. That’s the whole movie, and the simplicity is why it works. Splitting the team up forces pairings the first two films never bothered with, and suddenly these characters are people instead of positions on a bridge.
Karl Urban walks away with it. Bones is the best thing here by a wide margin, and sticking him with Spock for most of the runtime was the smartest call anyone made. Their bickering is hilarious, and then it turns warm on you when you’re not looking. I’d watch a whole movie of those two arguing on a rock.
Justin Lin coming over from Fast and Furious sounds like a warning sign. It isn’t. He keeps the action legible, which shouldn’t feel like an achievement until you sit through a blockbuster where you can’t tell who’s punching who. The camera moves, the colors pop, and you always know where everybody is standing.
And yes, “Sabotage” gets used as an actual weapon. It has no business working. It works completely, and it tells you everything about the film’s attitude: it loves the history without getting stiff about it.
Sofia Boutella’s Jaylah is a great addition. Idris Elba does real work with a villain who’s honestly the thinnest part of the story, and that’s the one soft spot.
Early on, Bones says all Kirk needs is a drink, a new ship, and three weeks of shore leave. By the end, that throwaway line has quietly become the point of the whole thing.
If you gave up on this crew after the last one, come back. This is the fun, human, unpretentious Star Trek movie the world needed.
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