Chris Pine is at his most enjoyable when his confidence meets someone who will not indulge it. We recommend him as a comic leading man with a gift for sharing a scene, though he cannot compensate for thin writing.
Fi1m perspective
In Star Trek (2009), Chris Pine makes James T. Kirk look thoroughly pleased with himself. Zachary Quinto's Spock is unimpressed, and Pine lets the swagger become faintly ridiculous without making Kirk tiresome. We laughed at their exchanges because Quinto allows so little of that confidence to pass unchallenged. J.J. Abrams gets a good leading performance from Pine by leaving room for that friction. The villain is thin and the action sometimes overworked, but these two are worth following.
Before Kirk came the romantic comedies, including The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) and Just My Luck (2006). Unstoppable (2010) put him alongside Denzel Washington in an action lead; Hell or High Water (2016) gave him Toby Howard, a conflicted bank robber. The latter marked an important dramatic turn, though we would still start with Star Trek for an introduction to his work. His skill at making a leading man amusing without losing our interest in him is clearest there.
In Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023), his Edgin talks through a parole hearing as though a fluent explanation might excuse a poor plan. Pine and Michelle Rodriguez, as Holga, make the companionship look easy, helped by a script that never insists they become a couple. There is no need for him to make every exchange about Edgin. That relaxed partnership helps carry a fantasy comedy whose larger action sequences are loud, grey and too long. We would gladly spend more time with the crew talking and less watching the spectacle.
Wish (2023) shows how little even an enjoyable Pine performance can do when the writing offers too little elsewhere. As the voice of King Magnifico, he lets a self-satisfied purr turn into a snarl, making the king's complaints about his ungrateful subjects funny. The story is thin and the songs mostly forgettable, leaving the king's vanity with too much of the entertaining to do. It is a useful warning against choosing a film simply because he is in it. We would not sit through Wish just to hear him complain.
Biography
Chris Pine, also credited as Christopher Whitelaw Pine, is an American actor. He was born on 26 August 1980 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Robert Pine, is an actor known for the television series CHiPs, and his maternal grandmother was the actress Anne Gwynne.
Pine studied English at the University of California, Berkeley, and spent a year at the University of Leeds. He began his professional acting career after graduating in 2002. He is known for portraying James T. Kirk in the Star Trek films (2009–2016) and Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). Other notable roles include Toby Howard in Hell or High Water (2016) and Edgin in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023). He voiced King Magnifico in Wish (2023).
