It was only after I thought about it that I realized Krall's two henchmen (the alien woman to lead them there in the first place, and Krall's lieutenant who killed Jaylah's family) are likely two other prominent crewmembers from the Franklin vid under heavy prosthetic makeup. It's likely the whole crew of the Franklin used the same procedures Krall did to sustain themselves, becoming less human over the years. Their only focus was survival.
I didn't find Krall hard to understand. Consider;
+He was active at a time the Xindi and Romulans were fighting the Federation pretty much back to back. Early Earth space travel becomes a fight for survival of the human race. He's known many years of war and that's what he's used to, and from it, Earth prevails and gets stronger.
+The powers that be willingly disband their strongest defense arm for the name of peace and harmony, a mentality that Edison can't agree with coming out of two wars of survival, but follows orders.
+He's given command of, we're suspecting, a rustbucket older than the NX-01. If this is the case then of course it isn't a grand, glorious assignment to help transition into your new career as an explorer. But, orders are orders, go with it.
+The Franklin crash-lands on a planet that cannot communicate with the greater galaxy. A distress call is sent, but Edison has no way of knowing if it's reaching anybody. Combined with the rust bucket assignment, after a while he comes to believe that maybe the Federation disposed of him, and don't intend on rescuing him and the crew. That no rescue ship comes looking for them either only confirms what he might be suspecting.
+The only way he and his crew can survive the years and the harsh environment is on a planet where you have to live off others to survive. Taken to extremes with the life-force drainer, reinforcing the notion that the strong whom conquer live to persist and live on. It is likely his crew have joined him in his methods, or at least two of his other officers, probably if they are fellow MACOs who also believe they have been abandoned by their "Principled leaders" in the Federation.
+After over a hundred years of being abandoned, the Magellan probes land, and Krall can being not only plotting his revenge against the "enlightened Federation" that sent him off to die in space, but also force mankind to undergo another period of evolution/survival through fighting.
With all of that I think Krall stands apart from a lot of the other movie Trek villains. It is interesting though that like Marcus, the antagonist of both films are Internal from Starfleet. I do think Beyond does a lot better job of forcing us to question whether a militarized starfleet is a good one than Marcus does. Marcus is a lot more straight-faced about it. Krall hits us from the side by presenting us with, essentially, a war veteran who cannot move on.
What I find really interesting about Krall/Edison are some of the visual metaphors used for his character. For instance, how Krall gradually appears more human over the course of the film. And then at the end, how Edison is wearing the classic TOS uniform when he's fighting Kirk in his new survival outfit. What could that mean?
I didn't find Krall hard to understand. Consider;
+He was active at a time the Xindi and Romulans were fighting the Federation pretty much back to back. Early Earth space travel becomes a fight for survival of the human race. He's known many years of war and that's what he's used to, and from it, Earth prevails and gets stronger.
+The powers that be willingly disband their strongest defense arm for the name of peace and harmony, a mentality that Edison can't agree with coming out of two wars of survival, but follows orders.
+He's given command of, we're suspecting, a rustbucket older than the NX-01. If this is the case then of course it isn't a grand, glorious assignment to help transition into your new career as an explorer. But, orders are orders, go with it.
+The Franklin crash-lands on a planet that cannot communicate with the greater galaxy. A distress call is sent, but Edison has no way of knowing if it's reaching anybody. Combined with the rust bucket assignment, after a while he comes to believe that maybe the Federation disposed of him, and don't intend on rescuing him and the crew. That no rescue ship comes looking for them either only confirms what he might be suspecting.
+The only way he and his crew can survive the years and the harsh environment is on a planet where you have to live off others to survive. Taken to extremes with the life-force drainer, reinforcing the notion that the strong whom conquer live to persist and live on. It is likely his crew have joined him in his methods, or at least two of his other officers, probably if they are fellow MACOs who also believe they have been abandoned by their "Principled leaders" in the Federation.
+After over a hundred years of being abandoned, the Magellan probes land, and Krall can being not only plotting his revenge against the "enlightened Federation" that sent him off to die in space, but also force mankind to undergo another period of evolution/survival through fighting.
With all of that I think Krall stands apart from a lot of the other movie Trek villains. It is interesting though that like Marcus, the antagonist of both films are Internal from Starfleet. I do think Beyond does a lot better job of forcing us to question whether a militarized starfleet is a good one than Marcus does. Marcus is a lot more straight-faced about it. Krall hits us from the side by presenting us with, essentially, a war veteran who cannot move on.
What I find really interesting about Krall/Edison are some of the visual metaphors used for his character. For instance, how Krall gradually appears more human over the course of the film. And then at the end, how Edison is wearing the classic TOS uniform when he's fighting Kirk in his new survival outfit. What could that mean?
