Entertaining enough, I suppose, but this felt so perfunctory to me. A movie that exists simply to exist. As a self-contained "installment" of a multi-episode franchise like James Bond or Fast and Furious, where the goal is to simply churn out episode after episode, then something like this is definitely passable. Not in any way memorable, but enough to kill two hours of your time. If, rather, the idea here is to create something with an growing and interesting cinematic mythology, then this comes up pretty far short. I can't think of a single emotional beat or set piece in this entire film that adds anything to the franchise's legacy. If they made another, could one really say this has to be seen first?
I like Lin -- I continue to believe Fast Five is one of the finest pure action movies of the past decade, and his work on TV was a revelation. So, I was considerably disappointed that the action in this film felt so indistinct. The first extended action sequence on the Enterprise was an endless and incoherent mis-mash of boring fistfights and things crashing into each other. And nothing that comes later lives up to the cinematic promise of Abrams' 2009 reboot, which I felt brought a sense of true image-making to the franchise. The character dynamics here felt pretty redundant, and Idris Elba was reduced to a monster-of-the-week.
It's certainly a competently made sequel, more accomplished all-around than the dreck that was the third installment of X-Men. But it just feels like this thing went through the motions and gave us nothing of lasting significance, besides the image of a two-second back rub.
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