The moment I was hooked by the trailers for the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot was when Pike (Bruce Greenwood) challenged Jim Kirk (Chris Pine) to try to live up to the legacy of his father. The score, Greenwood’s delivery, and the weight of what he was saying… all of that combined hit me dead center, and from that point on, they sort of had me on the hook.
I feel like it’s a very smart choice, then, to bring this final trailer in the ad campaign for this summer’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” back around to the two of them, Pike and Kirk, once again sitting together, once again discussing Kirk’s potential as a leader. Pike is such a particular figure in “Trek” history, and perhaps the most significant refiguring in this new rebooted version of the “Trek” universe is the way he and Kirk deal with one another. You can’t do much better in terms of mentor figures than Greenwood’s Pike, and Kirk needs that voice in his ear, someone willing to push him and dare him to be a better person.
It must be awful to be an old-school “Trek” fan who doesn’t enjoy these new films. I know some longtime hardcore fans who just plain can’t find anything to enjoy here, and I feel like we’re looking at totally different movies. I look at the work Chris Pine does as Captain Kirk, and what I see is the young man who will eventually become the confident swaggering Kirk that we saw in the original series. I like seeing him bristle at a challenge, and I think Pine’s real brilliance in the part is the way he plays all the insecurity and the ego without making Kirk into a jerk. This is a guy who could well be great, but he’s not there yet, and watching him start to gel with this crew should be the driving force of this film. One of the things you have to do when you’re juggling a big cast like this is you have to give them all something to do, some reason to take the part. In doing so, you also create a sense that all of these people have earned their way onto the Enterprise. I like seeing them all as great at their jobs, valuable members of the team.
Amazingly, this trailer still doesn’t give the whole thing away. There are some great new images, suggestions of scenes that we hadn’t gotten a glimpse at yet, but they still aren’t telling you everything about the movie. We still haven’t really seen the Klingons. We still haven’t seen the truth about everyone in the film. We’re still just barely seeing the larger game that’s being played. Now I hope they can keep from showing us anything else between now and release, because as it stands, I’m onboard. I don’t need anything more than this to know that I’m excited to see it, and as soon as possible.
“Star Trek Into Darkness” opens May 13, 2013.