Director: Justin Lin
Cast Headliners: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Idris Elba
Original Release Date : July 22nd, 2016
Much like the crew
in the plot of Star Trek Beyond, what does the film do when it does
not have JJ Abrams in the director's helm, as he is only producer
here? Well it can be assumed even without watching this that the crew
finds a way to heroically perverse to great success, and the same can
be said for this film. Justin Lin does a solid replacement job, and
for good or less so the entire cast brings that trademark Star Trek
feel for a fun if mostly typical adventure.
The film picks up
three years into the five year mission of the reboot Enterprise crew.
Captain Kirk(Chris Pine) grows slightly tired of life in the stars,
and certainly enjoys the chance to reach a rest point at Yorktown
space station with his usual crew of Spock (Zachary Quinto),
McCoy(Karl Urban), Uhura(Zoe Saldana), Sulu(John Cho), Scotty(Simon
Pegg), and Chekov(the late Anton Yelchin). It's always nice to see
the world of ST fleshed out a bit more, though a mysterious visitor
brings the crew and ship to another wild jungle planet and the space
around it as they go against the fearsome Krall (Idris Elba).
It's a pretty
standard formula of good and evil and doomsday devices by this point.
It does not bring much new or timeline crossing elements to the
picture, and does not get much darker than the tense thriller angle
of Into Darkness. But it's a action packed, fun, laugh filled
adventure that delivers a a expected but still tasty slice of the
goodness of this franchise. The humor and writing are one of the
highlights, with many unexpected pairings on their own missions when
never knew they wanted but turn out swell, such as Spock/McCoy and
(thankfully here a deserving final role) in Chekov/Kirk or the
slightly less featured than usual Uhura/Sulu. Whether it's from the
charismatic core crew giving humor or just the way scenes often
cleverfully unfold there's plenty of chuckles, cheers, and charming
heart to be found.
The returning hits
their usual notes on par but there is the moderately big new
characters as well. Jaylah(Sofia Boutella) is a local of the enemy
world and events bring her to ally with the Enterprise crew. She is a
great addition in many ways. Boutella never once comes off as
anything but genuine with her alien makeup visage, and brings an
exotic warrior attitude that leads to humorous moments and cool
action. She has a solid core role in the plot and one eagerly
anticipates her being in more potential sequels. Meanwhile however
Elba's alien warlord Krall is just about decent or so. Purposefully
at times hard to understand vocally, his attitudes and motivations
never rise above much more than the simpler of the original
television series' foes. His backstory is almost an attempt at the
tragedy of Nero or the empathy of Khan, but coming from his heavily
makeupped/masked visage it's harder to take seriously other than
offer a hand to some action and dramatic dialogues.
The action and
visual spectacle delivers very well as usual for the series. Justin
Lin's trademark explosive style from the Fast and Furious series
rarely jumps into the too-crazy of that world (But sometimes does)
though otherwise it feels just as it should. Some sequences are a bit
hard to follow, but both in space and on ground there are multiple
exciting sequences that make the sometimes too long downtime solidly
worth it.
Overall Star Trek
Beyond is “another Star Trek” in its good and bad. But when it's
this legendary franchise, with these actors that is a fine enough
thing. It makes some missteps, has some good and ok new additions and
ideas. To a fan though, it will bring a solid experience no matter
what it has or who's in the director's chair. 8 out of 10
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