Screen Junkies has had a lot of success creating “honest trailers” for various films. Essentially, the creators share things we might be thinking while we’re watching the movie, and they get a good percentage of those things right. Back in 2013, they created the honest trailer for Star Trek (2009) with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, and while I’m one of the fans that really like this movie, I do see the humor Screen Junkies brought to the fore in this original trailer.
The video starts with one of the bones of contention for Star Trek fans in that this film by J.J. Abrams jettisons canon and takes off on a different adventure.
"The cool new franchise that used time travel gobbledy gook to throw away fifty years of canon."
It sets up the premise of the movie with talk of Nero’s anger after Romulus was destroyed, and the hilarious voiceover asks why instead of warning his planet about what’s to come, Nero waits around in space for twenty-five years. And the narrator sarcastically asks if they don’t have phones in space. That’s a perfectly valid question.
With the villain firmly established, the trailer moves on to who can stop Nero, and Captain Pike, Commander Spock, and Captain James T. Kirk’s names are all thrown in…but the narrator doesn’t exactly set them up as heroes.
"But there’s one man who can stop him…Captain Pike…who’s quickly captured. Leaving only one other man…Commander Spock…who quits after an emotional breakdown. Leaving only one other man who can stop him…Captain James T. Kirk, an angry drunk who is accepted into Starfleet without any paperwork, background checks, or medical evaluations."
Calling the U.S.S. Enterprise the Federation’s heavily armed Apple store, (Looking at the bridge, I can seriously see why this description was used.) the trailer invites fans to explore the all new Star Trek universe that takes all the aliens you know and love and doesn’t show any of them.
Whether or not you’re a fan of the 2009 version of Star Trek, you’ll get a laugh or two out of this trailer. Even though there is a bit of snarky sarcasm, it’s clear from the comments and over 7 million views that no one has taken offense. (Okay, there are 1,000 or so downvotes.) Because it’s all in fun. And it even gets the actors’ names wrong at the end. Give it a watch; it’s definitely worth the four minutes!