As some of you might deduce from my username, BeamMeUpScotty, I’m a fan of the science fiction genre. Truthfully, I’m more of a Star Wars than Star Trek man, but I thought I’d throw my two cents in and try this movie review thing. Going into this please note that I’m a pretty easy going guy so I try to give movies the benefit of the doubt on a lot of things.
So here are my thoughts on Star Trek: Beyond…
***SPOILERS***
The film starts out with Kirk in a bit of a humbug situation. They’re three years into the five year mission that was alluded to at the end of the previous film.Kirk’s having an identity crisis and he’s using his Dad as a measuring stick. Considering that Kirk has done way more stuff than his Dad ever did I don’t know if this is the best barometer, but it furthers the plot concerning Kirk’s dilemma. Does he really want to continue to be a ship captain, or does he want to take a nice cushy desk job and a bump in rank. Plus, there’s the added bonus of getting to be on the Yorktown, the Federation’s totally bad ass new mega-space station.
On a personal note, I loved the visuals of the Yorktown. Anyone who’s read my web serial, Two Worlds, I kind of imagine that’s what my New York metropolis looks like. Although, instead of having the city’s being on different sides of the “spokes”, I have them stacked on top of each other. Similar to the way the spaceship’s entrance area is below the actual city part.
Now back to the review.
Why they’re on the Yorktown, Spock learns that the Leonard Nemoy Spock has died. I like how they handled that topic, and they built it into Spock’s character development. Just like Kirk, Spock is having his own dilemma. Should he continue in star fleet or as Bones puts it “go make Vulcan babies”.
Bones has a much bigger voice in this installment than in previous ones,and it worked out well. There is a general overture of comedy in this Star Trek, and it mixes well with the character building they do. Simon Pegg’s character, Scotty, has some funny one liners too. I think having him co-write the script was a good idea. I’ve been a fan of Pegg since Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He’s transitioned into blockbusters very well.
After setting the stage for where all of the characters are they bring in the catalyst that sets off the rest of the story. An unidentified ship shows up asking for aid in an unidentified region of space, so of course Kirk and the Enterprise spring into action.
That actions involves a hive-like enemy ship formation that destroys the Enterprise.
This was a part of the movie that I had an emotional reaction to. The disk section of the Enterprise crashing into the atmosphere was heartbreaking.
We meet the bag guy in the fight that takes down the Enterprise. Played by Idris Elba, Krall isn’t really as well defined as I would have liked; especially when he was played by such a talented actor.
After the crash landing on the planet Scotty meets a warrior woman, Jaylah. While a bad ass, I feel like the acting could have been a bit better. There were some accent slips that brought you out of the moment, but it wasn’t too bad. She gets in on the action and comedy throughout the rest of the film.
While Scotty and Jaylah are trying to fix an old Federation ship that Jaylah comedically refers to as “home”, Spock is with Bones, and Kirk with Chekov. I won’t go through too much of what happened but there was an intended plot twist with Kirk and Chekov’s group that you saw coming a mile away, while Spock and Bones do some bro bonding.
Needless to say, they fight to save the captured crew and win. Jaylah gets some revenge against Krall’s second in command that had to have had several scenes cut from the movie during editing. Kirk riding around a motorcycle was pretty entertaining though.
In the old Federation ship, Kirk and crew race off to save the day with Spock’s recommendation on how to do the actual saving. I understood the thought process on how to destroy the enemy hive-fleet, but I still don’t get exactly how they caused all the ships to blow up. They rushed through that part of the explanation, but the mix of rock and roll and cinematic violence more than makes up for it.
Kirk has a final struggle against Krall, who again I don’t think had enough screen time to be built into a proper villain. It’s not as climatic as I would have liked, but it was ok. I had an idea about the twist with Krall coming, but I could see where some people would have missed it.
In the end, everyone’s self-doubt is gone and the crew of the Enterprise is ready to head off on another adventure. I read an article they’re getting Chris Hemsworth to be Kirk’s father again and I’m guessing the next one has something to do with time travel or the parallel universes meeting up. Don’t quote me on that though.
One a scale of one to five stars, with five being awesome and one being total crap, I’d give Star Trek Beyond three and a half stars, maybe four depending on your knowledge of the TV series. It’s a little before my time, but I’ve read other reviews that say it brings people back to those good-old days.
RIP Anton Yelchin 😦 He will be missed.
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