Summary
- Chris Pine is right - Star Trek 4 should focus on story and characters, not action and explosions.
- Going smaller is better for Star Trek 4 and let personal stakes be the focus of the film.
- The final chapter of Pine's Star Trek crew should be about the characters and their friendship.
I agree with Chris Pine: Star Trek 4 should scale down. Pine has opined that Star Trek 4 would be better as a modestly budgeted film that focuses more on story and character development than action and explosions. Pine headlined three J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek blockbusters as Captain James T. Kirk. Since then, Pine has become a director himself; although his debut film, Poolman, didn't get a warm critical reception, Chris' instincts about Star Trek 4 are still on the money.
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) was a shot in the arm the franchise needed. Abrams' hyper-kinetic reboot gave new life to Star Trek, infusing the venerable saga with spectacular wide-screen scope, a thrillingly relentless pace, and truly galactic stakes. Abrams' miraculous Star Trek cast, led by Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, also proved the USS Enterprise's iconic characters could be embodied by new actors. However, as Abrams' Star Trek movies kept getting bigger, returns diminished. Now 8 years and counting since Star Trek Beyond, Paramount Pictures still can't figure out what to do with Star Trek. But Chris Pine gets it: go smaller.
Star Trek 4 Would Be Better As A Smaller-Scale Movie
Bigger isn't always better
I co-sign Chris Pine's opinion that Star Trek 4 should be made for the diehard fans who already love Star Trek, instead of Paramount seeking the more fickle general audience. Star Trek has a dedicated fan base that spans generations, yet it's not as sizable as the audience that devours Star Wars or Marvel Studios movies. Pine believes that Star Trek 4 should not try to compete with Marvel and deliver the kind of stories Star Trek fans love, which involve beloved characters taking on a moral dilemma and solving an unsolvable puzzle. This would indeed be a refreshing change of pace from the dire galactic threats J.J. Abrams' Starship Enterprise faced.
A Star Trek 4 that's about the characters and not about the crisis is what the core Trekker audience wants.
Although Quentin Tarantino backed away from his plan to make Star Trek 4, the inimitable director was also on the right track. Tarantino wanted to make a gangster picture inspired by the 1960s Star Trek episode, "A Piece of the Action." Quentin's R-rated Star Trek romp likely wouldn't have appeased Paramount's desire for a big box office spectacle, but it would have been an intriguing, smaller-scale Star Trek movie. Pine thinks, and I concur, that a Star Trek 4 that's about the characters and not about the crisis is what the core Trekker audience wants. And, after all, if word-of-mouth says a movie is good, a wider audience will seek it out.
Trying To Go Bigger Is What’s Keeping Star Trek 4 From Getting Made
Personal stakes > galactic stakes
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies showed Vulcan exploding, almost sparked a war with the Klingons, and saw the biggest space station ever seen in Star Trek nearly destroyed. How do you top that? The answer is: Don't. It's better to go the other direction and focus on the Starship Enterprise characters fans are already invested in. None of the chaos Krall (Idris Elba) caused in Star Trek Beyond is as memorable to me as Kirk asking Spock, "What would I do without you?" and Spock dryly replying, "I don't know"; Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) calling Kirk "James T.", or Commodore Paris (Shohreh Aghdashloo) kindly commiserating with Kirk about how easy it is to get lost in the vastness of space.
Toby Haynes is also directing an Untitled Star Trek Origin movie to be released in theaters before Star Trek 4.
Star Trek 4 is being billed as "the final chapter" of Chris Pine's USS Enterprise crew, and coming up with a story of suitable grandeur may be stymying the film. But the answer is to make Star Trek 4 about the characters, who are now in middle age, and what they mean to each other.Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is beloved not because it's an epic action film, but because it is about friendship, old age, and death. For Star Trek fans, personal stakes are more important than the fate of the galaxy. Star Trek 4 following Chris Pine's lead to be about a great story focusing on the Starship Enterprise's family would deliver more dividends and make Star Trek fans happier than another big-budget, planet-destroying spectacle.
