Star Trek: Renegades |
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USA • 2015 • 88m •
   • Directed by: Tim Russ. • Starring: Adrienne Wilkinson, Walter Koenig, Tim Russ, Sean Young, Manu Intiraymi, Corin Nemec, Gary Graham, Bruce A. Young, Chasty Ballesteros, Edward Furlong, Courtney Peldon, Robert Picardo, Larissa Gomes. • Music by: Justin R. Durban.   It is nearly ten years after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant, and the Federation is in a crisis. The Federation's main suppliers of dilithium crystals are disappearing. Space and time have folded around several planets, effectively isolating them from any contact with outside worlds. And this phenomenon is not natural - someone or something is causing this to happen. This necessitates drastic measures; some of which are outside the Federation's normal jurisdiction. For this, Admiral Pavel Chekov, head of Starfleet Intelligence, turns to Commander Tuvok, Voyager's former security officer and current head of the newly reorganized Section 31. Tuvok must put together a new covert, renegade crew - mostly outcasts and rogues - even criminals. This new crew is tasked with finding out what is causing the folding of time and space, and stopping it - at all costs. But will they be able to put aside their differences and stop trying to kill one another in time to accomplish their mission?
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Review:
First off, most of the acting is mediocre, sometimes bad. The movie starts off with perhaps the worst actor of the bunch reciting a poem in a very forced way; it sounds like she tries too hard to sound sincere and emotional, and ends up sounding ridiculously over-the- top. The poem also has nothing to do with the movie -- perhaps it has something to do with the main character, but her character is not fleshed out well. There was something about her mother being killed by two people on a planet somewhere, but I don't remember it having any relation to the movie, it was just meant to make the main character seem 'cool' for not letting traumatic events get the best of her. It honestly sounded more sad than cool. The way some of the actors moved and talked looked scripted, very theatrical. It seemed like everyone did their best to come across clearly, but that's part of the problem. The only actors in this movie that acted believably were Tim Russ, Walter Koenig, and Robert Picardo. It's possible the new actors just need time to adapt to their roles, and maybe they need more experience acting. But I think that part of the problem is the wooden script.
Secondly, most of the main characters are very bland, and some of their backstories are either told through one or two throwaway lines that sound like they were told by students who have no concept of good acting or good scripts. If I recall correctly, some characters don't even have background stories, they just give a general idea of what their personalities are, and that's it. Jaro Ruk tries to be a tough guy and is basically an a-hole, the captain (from the intro) is probably supposed to be calm and collected but the actress comes across as if she doesn't know whether to be cool and aggressive or calm and collected.
Not only are the characters bland and not well fleshed out, they had barely been introduced and have no interesting interplay. The crew doesn't get along, but why? There is no real answer to that. More than that, their mutual animosity never evolves or jeopardizes the mission, except for when Jaro Ruk refuses to help Garis, but that turned out to be irrelevant for the rest of the movie. There are also too many characters to put into an hour-and-a-half movie. The script's not good either: once or twice I didn't even know what was going on, because the characters put some things into words in odd ways. I don't know what's going on between Icheb and that woman.
The visual effects are quite cartoony, sometimes looking like something that came out of old Wing Commander video games. That said, the ships look pretty detailed (though maybe a bit too plasticky smooth).
The action was shot in a very bland way without any impact or speed: one of the ships actually dodges photon torpedoes by slanting left very slightly. When that ship then fires torpedoes on another ship, the impact sounds muffled and underwhelming. Indeed, the sound effects weren't exactly good when it comes to quality, not even compared to old Star Trek shows from the '90s.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fanboy of the old Star Trek, but I thought Into Darkness was far removed from being Star Trek. It just lacked that spirit of boldly going where no-one had gone before, to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and civilizations. To let humanity grow, and to explore social and philosophical questions and ideas. This movie feels even less like Star Trek to me, as it has none of the above, and no strong characters or fun. I like the concept of Renegades, and I want people to give it a chance like I will, but the bad acting and script and mediocre cinematography make me think the creators need to think about hiring better writers and a better director, and possibly even reboot this upcoming Renegades TV series.
Review by Jan Epson from the Internet Movie Database.
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