The Star Trek Beyond came out today. To be quite honest I was not paying attention to the dates as this summer has been flying by. It is not that I have not seen anything, the opposite being true. The family and I have seen Dory, Ghostbusters, Pets, Mike and Dave, Central Intel, Independence Day, Shallows, so we have not been hiding under a rock.
What I liked. What is not to like? We have an almost perfect crew with Chris Pine, Zachary Wuinto, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Zoe Saldana, and Karl Urban all returning. Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame directs and Simon Pegg and Doug Jung shares in the writing duty. JJ Abrams shares production with Robert Orci, Lindsey Weber and Lin. Amazing actually to have kept the cast together because you just don’t see that all the time now. This 50 year anniversary also gets a dedication to the loss of Leonard Nimoy who passed away in 2015, but also Yelchin who was killed by a freak accident after filming concluded.
The action is intense after a slow start to the movie. This slow start was a bit necessary to help identify where the story was going. Kirk is getting a bit depressed and tired of being a simple captain after years on the ship. You can tell he has aged a few years and is filling the role as captain nicely. The movie also shows Spock showing obvious estrangement from the long term mission after finding out the older Spock had passed away. This movie shows more about the crew knowing each other than in the past. Yes, there was the relationship with Spock and Uhura, but this time around there is a little of Kirk and Spock, Spock and Bones, Scotty and everyone, Chekov and Sulu, as well as Uhura and Spock. All of this melts away when the ship flying starts.
Idris Elba’s Krall is playing the nemesis in the film opposite of Kirk, who start out as being quite alien, but we find out afterward that it yet another earther disenfranchised with the federation. This is my only real complaint and sorry, but a spoiler. I will let you find out how. There is very little interaction with Krall and Kirk though. Fighting, yes, but nothing face to face as far as speaking goes. That is held for Uhura. There are many of these small interactions in different areas in the film that if fully developed would take forever and take away the film as a whole. Instead Pegg and Jung just give you enough to know whats going on before jumping into the next action scene.
Before you know it, the Enterprise is in trouble, unbeatable enemies are all around, the crew is captured, stuck on an alien planet (amazingly they don’t eat anything during the mission?) and don’t have any way to make it off the planet. Welcome my favorite addition to Star Trek Beyond. Jaylah played by Sofia Boutella is another alien stuck on the planet after being drawn there and her crew also met a swift demise. She saves the day a few times and has the tools to allow the remaining crew to save the others, leave the planet and eventually save the galaxy with a little help from the Beastie Boys. Yes..throw back to the first movie. Maybe one of the most unrealistic things in the whole move and possibly something to fight over.
I liked this movie and it does the Star Trek history well for this 50th anniversary year. I know that everyone will have their own bits they don’t like, but Star Trek Beyond was a fun movie to watch. If you judge it by how long it “felt” like? Well, I did not even notice how long the movie was. You will like it as well. If you are interested in buying the movie, follow the link below on the picture.
