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Star Trek: Discovery: Face the Strange (2024)
A fun time travel episode with a few problems
So far, this was the best season 5 episode of Discovery. Although the narrative itself is ripped off from Voyager's Shattered (where the captain and commander also jump through different points in time), it is still fun to see them go through different phases of Discovery's history.
And, for once, the personal connections that Burnham and (surprisingly) even Rayner have with the crew, actually amount to something as it helps them to convince the characters in the past to let them carry out their mission. It was also good to see Stamets back in action as Anthony Rapp did a great job, especially his conversation with Reno.
Michael of Season 1 facing off with the current Michael was also pretty nice and I liked the spin that nobody in the past could imagine a mutineer becoming a Starfleet captain.
On the down side, the concept could have been used more fully - the time jumps could have included Michael having to convince Lorca (which would have been much harder than doing the same with Airiam), especially considering that he's from the Mirror Universe and not divulging that to the crew in order to protect the timeline. Also a different possibility would have been pitting Burnham and Rayner with Pike or Spock which could have been a great Strange New Worlds cameo.
In the end, the episode was enjoyable but it could have been that much more with such a premise.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel (1997)
Best Buffy episode in Season 1 so far
I recently started watching Buffy for the first time. I really enjoy its characters, its teenage high school drama meets horror narratives, and its unique humor. Angel is the best episode so far as it finally explains Angel's background beyond him being a Deep Throat-like enigmatic character. The revelation that he's a vampire was not totally unexpected but added good depth to his character, caught in-between a man with a soul and a deadly vampire.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz have great chemistry, both in terms of romance and their understanding of the Master and vampires.
I hope to see more of them working together in the future seasons. The only thing that I found a bit irritating is Anointed storyline that seems to be dragging throughout the rest of the season.
Star Trek: Discovery: Red Directive (2024)
Still feels like Star Wars and tries to pander to TNG fans
Discovery's new season premiere opens up another riddle for the crew to pursue. In order to track an artifact that holds the essence to all humanoid life and to keep it out of the hands of scavengers, Discovery visits a Tatooine-like planet and there is once again action and breath-taking effects that feel like Star Wars rather than Star Trek, including the racers Burnham and the others use. Once more, the season relies on a rather simplistic we-have-to-stop-the-bad-guys-from-getting-that-thing narrative, a type of narrative that also evokes Star Wars.
Like in parts of earlier seasons, the show also desperately tries to establish a forced connection to classic Star Trek, this time TNG by including a Soong android and referencing a TNG episode and building on it (instead of doing something entirely original).
At least, the hyperemotionalism of the earlier seasons is somewhat toned down in this one, which still leaves enough time for Saru's relationship and the Burnham-Booker-reunion. It just wouldn't be Discovery without at least a bit of soap opera and melodrama.
EA Sports FC 24 (2023)
Worst soccer game by EA yet
I really used to love playing what by then was still called FIFA years ago. It was always fun to play against or with your friends. Unfortunately, this new installment EA Sports FC (what an uninspired name) is the worst soccer game by EA yet. This encompasses all game modes, unfortunately.
ULTIMATE TEAM: I used to love playing this mode and competing in the weekend league in the past. But now it's virtually impossible to even qualify for the weekend league if you don't invest a lot of money. I cannot even qualify anymore without pay-to-win and losing badly every single match really got me frustrated. The only thing positive about Ultimate Team is the inclusion of female players, so I could add legends like Alexandra Popp and Alexia Putellas to my team which allows for more diversity in my dream team.
VOLTA: Again, I used to be a huge fan of FIFA Street but its new version, VOLTA, is no fun to play. The players seem to glide across the pitch instead of running which is very irritating and unnatural. Also, it's just about tricks now anymore which some of my opponents used all the time with no chance for me of getting the ball.
CAREER MODE: The career mode hasn't changed in years but it is still the only partially enjoyable mode of the game. Taking your team from the lower leagues up to the first league, buying new players and managing your club is still fun. However, unfortunately the difficulty settings hamper the fun. On Professional I beat every opponent easily with 10-2 or something like that. On World Class and Legend the balancing is off - some matches you win easily while in others you are being completely destroyed. There is no reasonable balance here as the quality of the teams you are competing with has no relation to whether you have one of these easy games or clear losses.
PRO CLUBS: It's still some fun to play this with friends but the AI - especially when defending - is horrible (which is also true for the Ultimate Team by the way). Again, frustration is often the result.
In the end, EA Sports FC is unfortunately a bad soccer game which is frustrating rather than enjoyable. Unfortunately, Konami is no alternative either as it has very limited modes and generally bad graphics.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
This one was too wild for me and lived only on nostalgia
Marvel movies nowadays get too convoluted and confusing with mashing together different superheroes and here parallel universes. This one was another of these mash-ups with the difference that all three Spidermen (Holland, Garfield, and Maguire) worked together to fight their respective foes.
The movie suffers from its strange pacing. It is very slow with Peter Parker and his friends wanting to go to MIT for an hour or so and then accelerates into confusing chase and fight sequences with multiple enemies from across the previous movies. While it was great to see the previous Spider Man actors and actors like Dafoe and Molina again, this was the only thing interesting about the movie, that means it lives purely on nostalgia.
It also has to because the narrative is utterly nonsensical: Why does Dr Strange help Peter by changing the past with hardly any hesitation?
Peter chose to be Spider-Man and the risk of his identity being revealed was part of that. He does not even try to change his future by himself before asking Strange to change the past for him (as Strange notes when he asks him if he has tried to contact and talk to the MIT committee). The premise is just utterly absurd and presents Peter as quite naive and stupid. Hasn't he learned anything about responsibility in his last few adventures?
Star Trek: Lower Decks: A Few Badgeys More (2023)
Badgey and the super computers
This episode brings the unexpected return of Badgey and he is just as maniac and evil as ever. Although the episode adds some twists with Badgey splitting its personalities, it still rehashes similar plot lines than the first few Badgey episodes. I have to admit that I didn't like the evil AI narratives with Badgey in the first place, so I didn't really enjoy its return here.
The supercomputer return - yes, another return in this episode - is also relatively annoying as it just repeats old supercomputer-wants-to-dominate-humanity tropes and it goes for a cheesy soap opera solution with the message that love conquers all.
In the end, it was a pretty ordinary episode for Lower Decks which for me didn't add anything interesting or new to the standard formula.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Hegemony (2023)
Good Return of the Gorn but also too much Jurassic Park and Violence
The Gorn return as aggressors again in this episode. They attack a colony outside Federation space that is still supported by the Federation, causing a dangerous stand-off between the Gorn and the Enterprise.
It starts out as a pretty standard alien invasion episode but then picks up pace when the away team gets caught up in a rescue mission on the surface while Spock and the others try to find a way to sabotage a Gorn installation that disrupts communications. The two narratives work well together. On the surface, Montgomery Scott joins the team and he is played excellently by Martin Quinn. I liked that Scotty was put to good use, foreshadowing his future as a miracle worker in TOS.
The representation of the Gorn however still troubles me. They do not seem like the pipedal reptiles from TOS but more like the velociraptors of Jurassic Park/World. Pike shows one major problem - so far the Gorn are only represented as faceless monsters rather than a complex species on its own. There are some half-hearted attempts at communication by Pike but ultimately the episode sticks to the rather problematic kill-or-be-killed-logic that the series seems to embrace to readily here, in contrast to the Federation's values of diversity and intercultural exchange.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023)
Great musical performances but also very ridiculous
This episode featured a phenomenon that responds to music and causes the Enterprise crew to burst out into song when they are getting emotional.
As this synopsis makes clear, the premise is quite nonsensical. While the episode tries to present this Sing-Mania as an existential threat to the Federation and Klingons, the episode has a certain Disney musical feel to it. Don't get me wrong, the songs themselves are actually very good - especially Christina Chong and Celia Rose Gooding are outstandingly good singers and I enjoyed their performances. Still, the entire episode felt utterly ridiculous (especially the Klingon dance performance made me cringe). A few weeks ago I feared that SNW would become too much of a light-hearted parody of Star Trek. This musical proves that this has unfortunately happened.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Charades (2023)
A fun episode with Ethan Peck at its best
I enjoyed this episode as it gives Ethan Peck the opportunity to break out of his usual Vulcan corset. The episode is very funny with a lot of situational comedy. Not every joke is great but most of them made me laugh or smile. The episode also ends the will-they, won't-they state in the relationship between Chapel and Spock that has been a long time coming.
Yet, although I liked the comedy in this one, I'm beginning to worry a bit about the tone of the show more generally. There have been quite a few over-the-top episodes with the focus on humor so far (Spock Amok, The Serene Squall, The Elysian Kingdom). It's important for the show not to develop into a full parody of Star Trek as this is what The Orville and Lower Decks are already doing.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (2023)
A stand-out La'an episode with some plot problems
This episode is a stand-out episode for La'an that manages to put her face to face with the troubled question of her ancestry. Christina Chong really excels here and she has good chemistry with Paul Wesley. I also liked that the time travel target was not an American city but the Canadian Toronto.
However, the episode falls short in terms of narrative. There are just too many convenient plot developments that are just illogical. La'an and Kirk track the cold fusion reactor by meddling with a watch in order to turn it into a primitive tricorder. This sounds more like a MacGyver Gadget than having a scientific basis. Also, they just wander around Toronto and by accident they find the location of the reactor. This is very convenient and illogical. Moreover, the episode employs too many cliches that have been used (too) often in Hollywood and time travel episodes: Wandering around aimlessly, stealing clothing, characters from the future not knowing how to drive a car (we had that same joke in both Star Trek Enterprise and Picard). Kirk's death was also unnecessarily melodramatic and constructed.
In the end, the performances are great but the narrative itself is mediocre at best, especially in comparison with the excellent previous episode.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Ad Astra Per Aspera (2023)
Star Trek and its core values at its best
This episode stands in the tradition of many excellent courtroom drama episodes of Star Trek, including the brilliant Measure of a Man from TNG. This episode evidences that Star Trek is at its best when it deals with the very tenets, the core values of the Federation and grapples with questions that make you think about your very own views and yes, also prejudices.
Una's trial raises important questions about racism and identity and how biology still shapes what is considered to be a human being (or here a proper Federation citizen and officer). The episode does that in a clever way, pitching back and forth different points of view and reasonable arguments. The central twist of the proceedings was a very clever one, as rendering aid to people in need is a core quality of what the Federation and Starfleet stands for.
The crew is somewhat sidelined in this episode, mostly they are just watching the trial with rapt faces. Yet, they all pitch in important arguments during the trial, and I think it was a good narrative choice not to let Pike appear at the trial but to let the crew speak for their crewmate and friend.
Ultimately, this episode excels by its extraordinarily intelligent writing and its engagement with Star Trek's core values, something that has been sorely lacking from Discovery and - for the most part - also Picard who have focused too much on action and hyperemotional scenes.
Star Trek: Picard: Stardust City Rag (2020)
Dystopia, Violence, Gore and Ruined Characters
This episode felt like a blend between Star Wars and Firefly, mixed together in a cyberpunk setting. The episode features an unnecessary amount of violence and gore. I hate what they did to Seven. Janeway and the Doctor spent years on helping her to regain her humanity, empathy, and a Federation-inspired moral compass. There is nothing left of this in this vigilante Seven who murders in cold blood (Does anyone remember Seven's horror at the atrocities that she committed as a Borg on Voyager?) I get that she is upset by Icheb's death - a beloved character who is just killed off unceremoniously in order to get the plot started - but this Seven has nothing to do with the one we know and love from Voyager. Also, Picard's "performance" as a trader is utterly ridiculous - and not in a funny way. At this point, I honestly don't get why Patrick Stewart agreed to this. By now, it is pretty obvious that the writers of the show do not really care about what Star Trek used to be about - a hopeful vision of the future, a utopia to strive for. This show is just another dystopian Science fiction show that has nothing to do with Star Trek anymore except the names of a few characters.
Star Trek: Picard: Absolute Candor (2020)
Of Doubts, Elves, and Borg Rituals
The episode has an interesting premise - Picard once again has to face the consequences of his actions in the past as he revisits a Romulan refugee colony. The mise-en-scene of the Romulan colony was perfect and I liked that the Romulans were depicted as individuals (for example, they are not all wearing the typical TNG haircut).
Yet, the episode suffers from several questionable creative choices. A Romulan warrior nun sect? A Romulan warrior that looks and fights with a blade like Legolas from the Lord of the Rings? A flashback Picard that wears a cowboy hat? A cringe-worthy sequence on the Borg cube in which Soji and Narek are dancing/sliding through the corridor? I winced too many times during this episode. In addition to that, even four episodes into the series Picard's new crew still seems relatively bland - a blabbering scientist, a Han Solo type captain, an ex-Starfleet officer that still has little significant to say or do, and now, of course Romulan Legolas, I mean, Elnor. Also, Picard's skills at diplomacy seem to have suffered over the years as he confronts the Romulans and seems to be surprised by their aggressive reactions.
Frankly, I'm beginning to lose interest in the show. At least, Seven's last minute appearance provided me with a glimmer of hope for the next episode.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
A shallow and mostly formulaic show
It pains me to start this review this way but generally Star Trek Discovery unfortunately is a formulaic and shallow show. It shows some promising tendencies but fails to truly deliver on them. This becomes especially evident in terms of its storylines, characters, and style.
STORYLINES
The show relies on serialized season-long narratives (the Klingon War in season 1 and the Red Angel mystery in season 2). Unfortunately, both of these narratives were - at least in my opinion - not very interesting. We've seen conflicts between the Federation and the Klingons so many times now that it starts to get old. And the Red Angel storyline started out promising but then turned into a formulaic evil AI story and too many dues ex machine moments via the Red Angel. In general, the show relies too much on milking its prequel setting by continuously showing things we already know about (the Klingons, Sarek, Amanda, Spock, Pike, the Talosians, the Mirror Universe) while introducing little that is truly new and engaging (e.g. Spore drive, the Kelpians and the Ba'ul). The narratives in single episodes are also very formulaic - normally it's Burnham who solves the major problem of the episode, Burnham always faces an emotional problem which requires of her to sob (especially in Season 2), there is a lot of melodramatic dialogue, etc. The general storyarcs are also very convoluted and - probably due to the frequent change in showrunners - incoherent: Season 1 seems to be about the Klingon war just to suddenly switch to the mirror universe and then it wraps up the Klingon war in an unsatifying episode. The same holds true for season 2: it's never clear what is the main focus of the narrative - the Red Angel storyline? The Control storyline?
CHARACTERS
The biggest problem of the show are its characters. The showrunners focus on Burnham as a main character which mostly turns every other crewmember into an extra. They tried to remedy that in season 2 by also focusing on Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Airiam, Culber, and Pike. But still - even after two seasons almost all of these characters still remain flat and one-dimensional (Stamets is defined only by his relationship to Culber so far and there seems to be little more to him than that, Airiam was neglected in season 1 only to be focused on in one episode of season 2, an episode in which she already dies, Mirror Georgiou is a walking stereotype of jokes and ultraviolet behavior, Tilly is little more than a youthful, geeky comic relief most of the time, etc., we know practically nothing about Owosekun and Detmer). Moreover, Burnham is just not a particularly likeable character - she's smug, displays a constant know-it-all attitude and is a hyperemotional character. So far, the only characters that I truly felt were well developed and interesting were Saru and Pike.
STYLE
The show mostly adopts the flashy, superficial style of the JJ Abrams movies which means that there are lens flares, action-focused stories, CGI festivals for effects' sake, and a very superficial approach to Star Trek's values and core ideas. The show lacks complexity as it represents complex species and issues in highly superficial ways (e.g. Vulcans "don't do funny", scientific discoveries are presented as "the power of maths", etc.)
Whiskey Cavalier (2019)
Huge potential but too much over the top
Whiskey Cavalier focuses on a team of secret agents, hackers and tech-geniuses who complete missions throughout the world. On the positive side, the cases of the week (and longer story arcs) are interesting and the settings across the world are spectacular (a kudos to the videographers). The acting is also pretty good, including both the leads (Foley and Cohan) and the supporting cast. Yet, the show suffers from over-the-top characters - literally every single member of the team (except maybe for Susan) is defined by over- the-top character traits: Will cannot stop talking about relationships (which is funny at first but gets annoying over time), Frankie always tries to be strictly professional despite being attracted to Will, Standish is so socially awkward that he slips into a comic relief role who is blabbering all the time, and Ray is the exact opposite of Standish as he is always grumpy around people. In short, the characters are very formulaic and over-the-top. The show also uneasily hovers between wanting to be an action drama (like 24) and sitcom and soap opera elements (seriously, in every single episode the main characters get distracted from their mission by relationship problems, e.g. the sexual tension between Will and Frankie, Will's girlfriend Emma, etc.). Ultimately, the show has potential (interesting stories, settings) but falls short of this potential due to its formulaic characterization and an uneasy balance between action drama elements, sitcom elements, and soap opera elements.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
The Last Jedi: A Star Wars Parody
With 'The Last Jedi' Star Wars has ultimately become a parody - a mocking imitation - of itself. Although traces of this were already visible in 'The Force Awakens' this movie takes parody to another level which almost already borders on ridicule. There are two elements in the movie which turn the once epic space opera saga into a parody of itself - the "twistmania" and the almost Marvel-like attempt to cram as much humor in this movie as possible.
TWISTMANIA: A (single) twist can be a wonderful narrative device if it suddenly takes the plot in a completely new direction or sheds a new light on the entire plot when it occurs towards the ending of a movie (e.g. in Flightplan). In 'The Last Jedi' Rian Johnson's main idea seems to have been to create a movie that thwarts viewer expectations at every turn / twist. The problem with the various twists in the movie lies in the fact that they willfully destroy emotionally-intense and potentially epic scenes (Luke takes the lightsaber just to toss it carelessly over his shoulder, the new main-enemy Snoke is simply unceremoniously killed off, Finn's heroic self-sacrifice for the Resistance is prevented by Rose's intervention). Moreover, there are simply too many twists in the movie which makes it seem as if it was constructed around the twists instead of being a coherent narrative which contains twists.
MARVEL-ESQUE HUMOR: Similarly to the hugely popular Marvel superhero movies which employ a lot of humor in order to make their movies more enjoyable for a general audience, 'The Last Jedi' is crammed with humor which mostly remains flat (Luke's tickling of Rey's fingers when she physically reaches out instead of with her mind, Luke dusting off his cape on Crait, BB-8 shooting coins (!) at enemies) or is even cringeworthy (Poe's your-mother-joke at the beginning, General Hux's chronic incompetence, Luke and Leia's reunion which spins around a discussion about hairstyles).
In general, 'The Last Jedi' is not so much a compelling, interesting new chapter in the epic Star Wars saga but a parody which proclaims to be a Star Wars movie which uses known characters, settings, and narrative patterns but never takes them (or even itself) seriously. While this might be hugely enjoyable if this was a real Star Wars parody (like Spaceballs and the Family Guy Star Wars episodes), the movie unfortunately lacks the spirit of the original Star Wars movies and ultimately remains a mediocre science fiction adventure comedy which does not live up to the magnificent universe which George Lucas created in the 1970s.
Spectre (2015)
Spectre: A Mediocre Return to the Classic Bond Film Formula
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS TO THE PLOT OF SPECTRE.
"SPECTRE" has the hard task to continue the Bond saga after the both critically and fan- acclaimed "Skyfall".
THE POSITIVE:
Daniel Craig once more portrays Bond and he does a magnificent job at showing us both Bond's humorous side and the tough and very intelligent 00 Agent which we know since Dr No. Lea Seydoux also does a good job and adds a distinctive character to the bondgirl role. The movie also tied in nicely with the predecessor "Skyfall" as the death of Judi Dench's M is thematized (Dench even gets a nice, totally unexpected but welcome cameo) and Bond's Aston Martin is still destroyed and still has to be repaired by Q. It is also nice to see Moneypenny and the new M more involved in the plot than in "Skyfall". THE NEGATIVE: Unfortunately, the movie fails at the level of plot. It feels like a mixture made of scenes from previous Bond Films. The carnival in México reminded me of "The Spy Who Loved Me". The entire train fight scenes resembled the ones in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "From Russia with Love". The new henchman of Blofeld is basically an updated Jaws. Moreover, it wasn't a good choice to bring Blofeld back. I really liked Waltz as a villain in "Inglorious Basterds" but in this movie his acting always looks a bit ridiculous. He isn't even threatening. For example, when he tortures Bond by drilling metal needles into his head, it has absolutely no effect on Bond although Blofeld tells him that his memory will be erased. At the end, after the chopper crashes, Blofeld just crawls away (!) from Bond, effectively making him the most pathetic Bond villain of all times. The Plot itself is also ridiculous. For example, Blofeld is presented as the mastervillain behind all the villains in Craig's Bond movies but there was absolutely no connection established between LeChiffre, Silva and the others before this movie. (They didn't even seem to belong to a single Organisation like SPECTRE) Finally, the ending ruined the Film completely for me. It just reached a new Level of incredibility and implausibility. Bond just keeps shooting at the chopper with his pistol (!) until he hits a vital part of the chopper and it crashes? Bond throws his weapon away and joins his new girlfriend instead of at least apprehending Blofeld?
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
A Trip Into Darkness
With "Star Trek Into Darkness" J.J. Abrams directs his second Star Trek movie following Star Trek (2009). In comparison to the first movie it is clearly visible that the crew of the Enterprise now know each other better. In the first movie they had to introduce all characters to each other, explain how everyone got to being aboard Enterprise etc. In this movie this is no longer necessary and the film can therefore concentrate on its plot.
WARNING: SPOILERS! PLOT The plot is definitively more sophisticated than in the first movie. In the first movie a Romulan traveled back through time to revenge on Spock and after the destruction of Vulcan faces Kirk and Enterprise in an epic space battle. Although a similar space battle is also fought in "Into Darkness" this time the storyline is more complex. This time the distinction between good and bad is blurred - in both antagonists (Khan, Admiral Marcus). For example, Khan's motive is not only revenge but also fear for his crew and this is what motivates his actions and lets the viewer sympathize with "the bad guy". Admiral Marcus, in contrast, at first seems like a (slightly) militant Admiral (but not a foe) until it is revealed that he has built a secret starship and wants to apprehend Khan at all cost (e.g. ordering Kirk to fire torpedoes at Khan's location on the Klingon homeworld,and his fight against Enterprise when Kirk doesn't hand over Khan to him).
Although I liked the plot structure in General (Nibiru Mission - assaults on earth - Enterprise's hunt of Khan - and final confrontation with both Khan and Marcus) there were some moments that I didn't like very much.
1) Enterprise hiding under the surface of the ocean on Nibiru - This was simply illogical and only written into the plot because of the "cool" effect of the Enterprise emerging from the water. Why didn't they simply stay in orbit in order to remain undetected by the prewarp civilization? 2) The "Wrath of Khan" reference in the end - When Kirk enters the room with the lethal Radiation in order to get Enterprise's engines back online I already knew that this was meant to be a homage to Star Trek II. The only difference is that in this movie Kirk "dies" and Spock stands at the glasdoor, talking to his captain for the supposedly last time. The dialogue sequence was almost exactly copied from "The Wrath of Khan". It felt like an (over)dramatic broad hint to fans of the "old" movies. A bit less would have been more, at least in this case.
3) Saving Kirk with the superhuman blood of Khan - Of course it was clear that Abrams couldn't let Kirk die (because he's an essential part of the Enterprise crew and because of future movies)but the solution with Khan's blood came a bit too quick. Bones sees the tribble move, and seems to synthesize a cure from Khan's blood without any difficulties.
CHARACTERS KIRK - Kirk has certainly developed since the first movie - he seems a better captain than in the first movie (caring for his Crew, also questioning orders given by superior if they are ethically / morally wrong). However, he still tends to do unnecessary (stupid) things such as hiding Enterprise under the ocean and trashing Khan on Kronos (he should know that this is pointless - it won't bring Admiral Pike back to life)--- good performance by Chris Pine SPOCK - Qunito better adopts Spock's cool logic than in the first movie. Spock reacts rationally but - when Kirk "dies" - he also Shows his human side (much more than the "old" Spock) by crying and furiously shouting a certain name. BUT: When he pursues Khan on earth, he even adopts Kirk's bad thrashing attitude - by beating Khan almost to his death until Uhura stops him.
BONES - Urban Plays Bones both in his traditional grumpy way known from the original series but also with his very own humour.
SCOTTY - Fortunately more involved in the story line and not only as comic relief. He even saves Enterprise by sabotaging Admiral Marcus's ship and helping Kirk to secure the bridge. Nice Scottish Accent by Pegg;-) ADMIRAL MARCUS - good Performance by Weller. However, he somehow diminishes to a secondary antagonist in comparison to Khan.
KHAN - Cumberbatch's charismatic acting really makes Khan the strongest character in the movie. Cumberbatch's voice really sounds very threatening and he masters both emotional scenes (in his cell on Enterprise)and fighting scenes very well. It is great to see Khan as a multidimensional character and not a one-dimensional-revenge character (compare Nero from 2009's Star Trek).
CONCLUSION: 7/10