Star
Trek Beyond
Kirk:
"We got no ship, no crew, how're we
going to get out of this one?"
Spock:
"We will find hope in the
impossible."
Star
Trek Beyond is directed by Justin Lin (Fast
and Furious 6, Fast Five, Fast and Furious) and stars Chris Pine
as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Commander Spock, Karl Urban as
Doctor 'Bones' McCoy, Simon Pegg as Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, Zoe Saldana as
Lieutenant Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu, Sofia Boutella as
Jaylah, and Idris Elba as Krall.
Captain James T. Kirk returns with the
Enterprise crew in this third installment in the Star Trek franchise to expand
the Federation by exploring new areas of the universe. When a rescue mission on
a new planet is tasked to the crew, a surprise attack by new villain Krall
destroys the USS Enterprise, sends them tumbling into the new uninhabited
planet, drags them into survival mode to find their way off the planet and to
stop Krall from continuing with his bad guy plans. Without the Enterprise ship
to help out, Kirk and crew now have their most difficult challenge ahead of
them.
I have to be honest when I say that Star Trek Beyond never truly excited me
from the announcement of the film or the trailers. Maybe it was the way the
premiere trailer was put together, a generic action summer blockbuster, or
maybe it was the way the Star Trek reboot series has been going south with Star Trek Into Darkness (which I
actually enjoyed, for the most part, but not as much as the first one).
However, I proud to say that Star Trek
Beyond is steering this rebooted series into the right path into future Star Trek adventures. I love how
adventurous the script of Star Trek
Beyond is willing to go, in terms of universal/planetary travel. This movie
takes the Enterprise crew to an unknown area of the universe which is so
interesting to me, and probably to everyone. That discovery of the unknown is
so beautiful even if we can only see it through a film like Star Trek Beyond. This exploring of the
cosmos has always been a trademark of Star
Trek: "to go where no man has gone before". So I commend the
screenwriters, who surprisingly are two people I didn't expect to make such a
fantastic space adventure movie: Simon Pegg, who has written and starred in
movies like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End, and Doug Jung, who has really only written for TV
shows in the past. I found Star Trek
Beyond funny when it needed to be, action packed when it needed to be, sweet
when it needed to be, and it never overstayed it's welcome. I had fun
throughout the whole movie.
When you think Star Trek, what is the one thing you think? It might just be a
character or an actor who played that character. Don't lie to yourself, that's
probably what you're thinking. I mean, I personally think of William Shatner
saying weird stuff in the talk...ing then...pausing way he speaks. Anyways,
with iconic characters such as Kirk and Spock, there is a large margin for
error if each member of the crew doesn't get a good amount of screen time.
Luckily, Star Trek Beyond is
character rich, and that includes new characters. While we all know how deep
the connection between the Captain and the Commander of the Enterprise goes,
the one relationship that we don't see much of and is actually explored even
more in Star Trek Beyond is the
relationship between Bones and Spock. Bones, the sarcastic doctor, plays really
well off of the literal Spock, and vice versa. Again, this is due to the
wonderful script that Pegg and Jung wrote. Not only is this relationship
unfolded more so than in other Star Trek
reboot films, but the crew, including Uhura, Solo, and Chekov, get a good bulk
of time to show how their commitment and faith to each other's skills goes.
Family is the word that comes to mind after seeing this movie. It's also
something that Justin Lin uses a lot in his Fast
and Furious movies. It was truly a great choice to make Lin the director of
this tight niche cast. To add onto these previously seen characters, the new
characters like Jaylah and Krall are fantastic auras to this universe. To be
perfectly frank, Jaylah stole the entire movie for me. Her make-up is not only
cool as hell, but she kicked ass. Lots of it! She never is boring to watch on
screen and I think that her, being a new character introduction,
willingness/stubbornness to learn from engineer Scotty and her relationship
with him showed that perfectly. Krall is nothing like the ingenious Khan, but
he does what he can to stand up to the likes of an icon like him. For the
majority of the film, his plans and his inspiration to do evil deeds is kept
secret, which is a little annoying, but I can definitely say that when it was
revealed, I was on board. I just don't think I ever felt Krall made as big of an
impact as Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness
or the Romulans in Star Trek.
Jaylah is the badass alien woman with the sniper, just for those of you who are curious.
How Justin Lin created this world coming
off of his success in the Fast and Furious franchise is mind blowing. However,
I can see similarities in the action: over the top, at times, but still
awesome. Star Trek Beyond feels like
a Star Trek film, except it has a bit
of an upgrade with CGI, obviously. The scene in the first act with the surprise
attack on the Enterprise is one of the better action scenes I have seen this
summer (still number one is the airport scene in Captain America: Civil War). Thumbs up to most of the CGI. There are some
times I could spot some poor CGI for sure and it just didn't work, but overall
it's a fun action film. Along with the script surprising the hell out of me,
the score is phenomenal. The strings from the introduction of Starbase Yorktown
are beautiful. It takes me back to films that gives off a sense of awe and
amazement. Personally, I believe that Michael Giacchino is the unsung hero of Star Trek Beyond.
Star
Trek Beyond is like getting a visit from your best friend that you haven't
seen in a couple of years: you heard about his/her visit, you hope they didn't
change, they drop by when you didn't see him/her coming, you're extremely happy
that they're the same person they've always been, they tell you that they'll
visit again later, but you still have some cool local friends that you hang out
with so you don't get bored. I know it sounds super weird to compare Star Trek Beyond to that kind of
experience, but think about it. It's pretty accurate. I'm so happy the Star
Trek reboots are now going into the direction that the original series set out
to do and visit unexplored locations. Best of all, we get to share these
adventures with the Enterprise crew. Live long and prosper, everybody!
4.5/5
PRO
- Takes advantage of universe; opens up opportunities for more Enterprise adventures
- Characters that we love each have good amount of screen time
- Script is fantastic
- Cool fun action
CON
- Sort of an underwhelming villain
Star Trek Beyond is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence
Click here to watch the trailer
Star Trek Beyond is in theaters everywhere now
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