I was never a Star Trek kid. It was on every once in awhile, and I believe it was The Next Generation, but I never paid any attention to it. My dad sat me down once and showed me The Wrath of Khan, but I don't remember anything other than Ricardo Montalban's hair. Sci-fi for me never really extended beyond Independence Day. However, as I've gotten older I haven't exactly grown out of my apathy for sci-fi, but I have recognized the power that these old sci-fi movies have. I've come to appreciate the mythology that has been established, recognized, and honored. I've come to appreciate the writing in the original Star Wars trilogy, and I've actually thoroughly enjoyed the new reboot of Star Trek films. I'm actually one of the few who liked Into Darkness better than the first film (so my credibility may not be very high here), but Star Trek Beyond continues the tradition of exciting and fun Star Trek adventures while honoring the originals and making something new.
Beyond begins three years after the conclusion of the previous film. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew, including Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), Bones (Karl Urban), and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin). They're continuing their mission of exploring a never ending universe. As they've been given the task of returning a young alien thing (woman?) back to her home planet, the USS Enterprise is suddenly attacked by a swarm of warships that rip through the ship like tissue paper. The crew is evacuated and kidnapped and everyone on the bridge crash lands on a foreign planet and separated as the villain Krull (Idris Elba) hunts them down for reasons that aren't immediately clear.
I'm usually not a big proponent of splitting up your main cast of characters in a sequel for a few reasons. First, as fans we love to see the main cast working together to solve different issues and two, it, somehow, always feels like each character gets less screen time when this occurs (even if this isn't actually the case). In the case of this film, I feel like it really works. Not only does it feel like each character gets more screen time, but the pairings actually worked well because they weren't conventional pairings. You'd expect that Kirk would be paired with Spock, but he's stranded with Chekov here. Spock with Bones. Uhura-- actually with baddie Krull. And Scotty is paired with newcomer and (also female I think...) badass Jaylah (Sofia Boutella). From what I've heard this is a Star Trek staple-- pairing crew that don't normally fit together for an added bit of conflict and fun. And it was a good idea here. They're not split for a substantial amount of time, but when they are, we get a lot more of each character and care about them more. Also, pairing Spock with Bones may be the best interactions in the entire movie.
This Star Trek, to me at least, is an improvement and maturation of the previous two. The past two have really been focused on the character growth of Captain Kirk. In the first one, he's a know-it-all punk kid who has to be taught that the universe is bigger than him and that nothing will be won if he can't work together with his crew. The second movie focuses on his being able to make calculated decisions in order to secure a safe mission instead of what he does-- gut decisions that continuously put everyone on board in danger. This time around he's finally the Captain. He runs a smooth ship. He's careful and caring and is willing to sacrifice himself for any member of the crew, no matter how small. While the formula for the movie is somewhat the same as the others (crew is attacked by a malicious alien force, must come together to defeat him before he destroys worlds), the characters feel more fleshed out and matured at this point so not all of the conflict feels too familiar.
The biggest asset in the franchise is Simon Pegg. In the previous two he's given us brilliant comic relief with his fantastic portrayal of engineer Scotty. However, with the departure of the original writers and JJ Abrams, Pegg was put to the task of actually writing the film. Pegg, a self-proclaimed fanboy of all things sci-fi, is the perfect candidate to write the film (I mean, he got known for his British TV show Spaced). The combination of his knowledge of old sci-fi and wry British humor was the perfect combination for these films. I was confident he would be able to give us a movie that felt more like a classic Star Trek movie than even the previous two, while injecting his unique and hilarious brand of humor among the cast-- but what I was the most impressed with was the amount of ingenuity that seemed to go into the story of the script. What I mean by this is that every movie needs conflict. Star Wars and Star Trek movies tend to have more than most with the conflicts building on top of one another like a seriously screwed up game of Tetris. However, in this film, the conflict that each character goes through seems insurmountable. Pegg is able to not only give difficulty after difficulty (that seem damn near impossible to solve) throughout the film, but give incredibly clever solutions that seem organic, set up much earlier, and impressive. The writing overall is the strongest part of the movie.
The directing is also very strong. Filling the JJ Abrams directorial shoes is Justin Lin (four of the Fast and Furious movies). His previous experience with directing knock-down, stupid but awesome action movies plays well here. He knows action. He knows what to do with a scene to amp it up and make it the most fun possible. A lot of people were worried that Lin was going to dumb down the series (that isn't exactly known for its levels of Vin Diesel-esque action), but instead he is able to weave the quiet intelligence of the scenes within the fun of the 'action'. There were a few moments that were a little bit too dark to make out what was happening, and a main fight scene when everything was a bit too choppy to make everything out... however, most of the film was very well directed. (I will say that the sound mixer/editor should've done a better job because a lot of what Idris Elba is saying is hard to make out... and you don't wanna drown out THAT voice.)
Overall, I'd say that Star Trek is an improvement over the other two. I'm not saying that it's better, per se, it just feels a lot more mature in nature. The growth is seen and structure is played with enough that it feels fresh and not just another Star Wars wannabe. Keep in mind, though, that this is coming from someone who has an appreciation for movies in general and isn't an expert in the world and mythology of Star Trek specifically. I've never seen a single episode of the old ones. But, I know, that for an underwhelming year as far as popcorn blockbusters are concerned... this one is definitely one of the best. It felt as though it was very under-advertised and would be forgotten by the time it was released, but this movie definitely has a leg or two to stand on. And... I can't stand the Beastie Boys (I know), but the use of their song "Sabotage" in this film may be one of the best uses of a song in a movie in recent memory.
B+
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