So, I'm going to go ahead and call this what it is - Fanpro. Despite the presence of a number of well-known actors, this movie was crowd-funded (presumably by the fans of Star Trek) and therefore is Fan produced, in my eyes. It also seems the kindest way to view the movie. If this was the result of a big budget production from a studio I'd be much less forgiving of it, trust me.
That said, how does it stand up? Well, not terribly well. I've seen far worse fanpro stuff for Star Trek, but also some much more coherent efforts. This is, to my mind, where Renegades falls down very badly. It isn't coherent.
The script is pretty awful, to be honest. You can see what they were aiming for, but they shot wide of the mark with it by a considerable margin. It just doesn't hold your interest. I'm still not convinced I entirely knew what was going on anyway. The story is by far the weakest part of the whole production.
Not to say there aren't other faults. For a start, when you put actors of varying degrees of ability in the same scene together, then the weaker ones will suffer and stand out as not so good. And, as a result, the whole scene can look amateurish and unrehearsed. In other words, the acting is dragged down to the lowest common denominator, which devalues the whole production.
Effects are, for the most part, decent. There are a few less than advisable choices but, given the budget, I can't moan too much about that. They at least didn't try to be overambitious with the effects, which is a good thing.
Sets are decent enough as well, and some of them were substantially less wooden than the actors in them. There were a few rather cheap looking efforts, which again, brought down the overall level of the movie, but not too many.
Make-up and prosthetics were pretty good, though I did raise a smile when watching the main bad guy trying to get some movement from the prosthetics around his mouth. They weren't very flexible, methinks. He did his best, though.
So that's the negatives. What about positives? Well, everyone seems to be enjoying making the movie. There is clearly love for the source material in spades and I suspect everyone had a good time during the production. In other words... enthusiasm! Despite the bad acting in places, no one looked like they weren't trying.
The space battles were decently done and I suspect a lot of the budget went into them. Very watchable.
And of course, it is always nice to see familiar Trek actors reprising their roles.
Not sure if anyone (Trek fans) wants this kind of thing anyway. I mean, I get that we all want more Star Trek, but this was trying to be something that Star Trek isn't really about. There was too much skullduggery and conspiracy theory in this plot to make it enjoyable.
Overall, the movie isn't one you'll watch twice. Watch it for curiosity's sake, and then move on and hope a new series emerges some time soon.
SUMMARY: Poor script and mediocre acting hamper this production. Don't expect too much and you may get some enjoyment out of it, but it may also just damage your faith in Star Trek.
That said, how does it stand up? Well, not terribly well. I've seen far worse fanpro stuff for Star Trek, but also some much more coherent efforts. This is, to my mind, where Renegades falls down very badly. It isn't coherent.
The script is pretty awful, to be honest. You can see what they were aiming for, but they shot wide of the mark with it by a considerable margin. It just doesn't hold your interest. I'm still not convinced I entirely knew what was going on anyway. The story is by far the weakest part of the whole production.
Not to say there aren't other faults. For a start, when you put actors of varying degrees of ability in the same scene together, then the weaker ones will suffer and stand out as not so good. And, as a result, the whole scene can look amateurish and unrehearsed. In other words, the acting is dragged down to the lowest common denominator, which devalues the whole production.
Effects are, for the most part, decent. There are a few less than advisable choices but, given the budget, I can't moan too much about that. They at least didn't try to be overambitious with the effects, which is a good thing.
Sets are decent enough as well, and some of them were substantially less wooden than the actors in them. There were a few rather cheap looking efforts, which again, brought down the overall level of the movie, but not too many.
Make-up and prosthetics were pretty good, though I did raise a smile when watching the main bad guy trying to get some movement from the prosthetics around his mouth. They weren't very flexible, methinks. He did his best, though.
So that's the negatives. What about positives? Well, everyone seems to be enjoying making the movie. There is clearly love for the source material in spades and I suspect everyone had a good time during the production. In other words... enthusiasm! Despite the bad acting in places, no one looked like they weren't trying.
The space battles were decently done and I suspect a lot of the budget went into them. Very watchable.
And of course, it is always nice to see familiar Trek actors reprising their roles.
Not sure if anyone (Trek fans) wants this kind of thing anyway. I mean, I get that we all want more Star Trek, but this was trying to be something that Star Trek isn't really about. There was too much skullduggery and conspiracy theory in this plot to make it enjoyable.
Overall, the movie isn't one you'll watch twice. Watch it for curiosity's sake, and then move on and hope a new series emerges some time soon.
SUMMARY: Poor script and mediocre acting hamper this production. Don't expect too much and you may get some enjoyment out of it, but it may also just damage your faith in Star Trek.