Star Trek Beyond is the latest of the Star Trek films. It stars Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk and Zachery Quinto as Enterprise Science Officer Spock. There is, in fact, no dog in the film.
This was my most anticipated summer blockbuster of 2016, after the dismal results of J.J. Abrams previous efforts into the Star Trek film canon, Into Darkness (2013), I was ready to embrace any new writing and directing team, and coming into the film, the writers room had at least one exciting name there. Simon Pegg who has also been delivering a good performance as the iconic character Montgomery Scott, Scotty, for the past two films. Pegg has played the role of screenwriter before for some critically acclaimed films such as the “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy/Cornetto Trilogy” consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007) and most recently The Worlds End (2013). He has also earned a certain amount of nerd cred in geek communities with social media actions, such as being a film celebrity that tweeted out the original 70 Minute Phantom Menace Mr. Plinkett Review. Justin Lin may have led fans to have another cold shudder because of resume that listed Fast & Furious and Fast & Furious 6. You can rest assured, this is the most reserved and slow paced Star Trek film in the reboot series.
Since the reboot cast has never been the issue, we should be all set for one of the best Star Trek films of all time. It starts off meta enough about the state of the franchise, with an exhausted Captain Kirk asking himself about half way into their five year mission of exploration, about why he even sighed up for Star Fleet to begin with, but the movie never really gives Kirk a story arc to help renew his love of exploration or being a Captain, it just kind of feels like an excuse to say, don’t worry, Star Trek will always be here, and it is still about diversity over adversity.
The film is not without its strong elements. The new character Jaylah has the potential to be the most fun Star Trek character that has ever been introduced. She is a self-raised refugee stuck on the planet that acts as the films primary setting, and has great rapport with an otherwise exhausted cast, playing the innocent but still competent and tough youth.
Half the action of the picture feels standard and rather dull, such as the initial attack on the ship that leads us into act two, as well as the final climatic battle between Kirk and the final big bad of the picture. These more mediocre sequences are balanced out by the sequences found in the middle of the film, such as when a small portion of the crew has to hatch an escape plane to help rescue the rest of the crew who are being held by the main villain, Krall. There is also an inspired sequence in how the Enterprise crew defeats the swarm of enemy ships in the third act.
This is by no means a bad Star Trek film when all things are considered, it contains enough good moments that should leave hungry fans satisfied, but as sloppy as the J.J. directed films could be, they at least went all out in their vision, and were driven by ambitious scripts that at least had something different to say compared to other Star Trek movies, where Beyond mostly seems comfortable to just reinforce the ideas that this franchise will never die, so why don’t we pay lip service to the importance of diversity again, especially in how the villain is handled and used for the overall narrative.
It’s another Star Trek movie.