Star Trek Beyond

OK, so I'm a Star Trek fan being old enough to have watched the original series BEFORE it was in re-runs! But Star Trek Beyond just plain disappoints. It's not terrible… but it's not great either.

It's Star Date 2263.2 and Kirk (Chris Pine) is into the third year of their "5 year mission" (which seems to somehow throw away a lot of potential sequel opportunities already doesn't it?). Less buoyant and confident than he used to be, Kirk is feeling a little emotionally 'Lost in Space': after all, as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy put it "Space is big… REALLY big". Spock (Zachary Quinto) also receives some news of a personal nature that unsettles him. They are both in need of a vacation, and Starbase Yorktown (queue some spectacular special effects and an operatic Michael Giacchino track) appears to be able to offer them that. The crew disperse for a bit of R and R: Sulu (John Cho) goes off to spend time with his family (after the big internet furore, the gay aspect of this is very subtle); Kirk gets career advice from the Admiral; and Spock and Uhuru (Zoe Saldana) go their separate ways since – like Ross and Rachael – they are "on a break".

The reverie is rudely interrupted by the arrival of a frantic alien called Kalara (Lydia Wilson) from the other side of a dense nebula. She needs help to rescue her crew, stranded on a planet there. Kirk's rescue mission however goes far from to-plan, and he and his crew are caught in the clutches of the warlord Krall (Idris Elba).

What's nice about this film is that the core crew of Kirk, Spock, Uhuru, Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu and Chekov (the tragically departed Anton Yelchin) gel together really nicely as an ensemble cast. The traditional by-play between the characters feels unforced, comedic and provides a warmth at the heart of the film. There is also a touching tribute to Leonard Nimoy, who died while the film was in pre-production, woven into the story of which I'm sure he would have approved.

Supporting the crew as a potential new character is the strikingly attractive and kick-ass Jaylah played by Sofia Boutella (the evil amputee Gazelle from "Kingsman").

There's also some fine and innovative alien technology on display with the 'swarm-like' alien fleet harking back (in an expanded scale) to the invulnerability of the nanites from an original episode.

Unfortunately, all of these positives are severely offset by a largely planet-bound Simon Pegg and Doug Jung story (didn't the woeful "Insurrection" teach writers that this tends not to be a good idea?) and action sequences that are so manically fast-moving that it is almost impossible to keep track of what exactly is happening. (Perversely, this is a film that might actually make more sense on the small screen than the big one, which is just BAD CINEMA!). There was even one point in a final fight scene where I seriously feared Kirk and Krall might have a 'sharing of mother's names' moment (if you know what I mean) but fortunately this script apocalypse is avoided.

At the conclusion the story actually makes no sense to me at all: without spoilers, it is difficult to discern exactly what the motivations of Krall actually were. Throw in a graphic in the final reel that looks like Krall is attacking the Death Star (no, seriously – watch for it!) and the concoction just doesn't hang together very well. I know Simon Pegg and director Justin ("Fast and Furious") Lin are huge Trekkers, but – sorry guys – this was a C- for me.

It's a mildly diverting popcorn movie, but with (for me at least) yet another disappointing film, its getting to the point where the best 'summer blockbuster' is likely to be Deadpool… and that was released in February!

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If you want a movie that has a lot of action, fighting and graphics, this is the movie for you. If you want a well developed plot and good acting, it just doesn't deliver. The acting is uneven. The Spock character seems to do the best job and is believable. Some of the others seem like they are at times still reading from the script. The old original Star Trek movies had well defined relationship stories in them but in this, it seems like the characters are secondary to the graphic presentations and fighting scenes. I would even say they don't click together like the original cast. So, to me it was entertaining to a certain extent, but disappointing in that the plot was not as developed as it could have been. The actress who played the "helper" in the end did seem to be very strong and believable.

With two great movies under it's belt, the latest installment in the Star Trek reboot has some big boots to fill. I was skeptic when I heart J.J. Abrams was not directing it and the writing was done by Simon Pegg and Doug Jong. Fortunately, it turned out to be a solid trek film.

Star Trek Beyond begins with the Enterprise and it's crew on a five year research mission in uncharted space which was assigned to them at the end of the previous movie. Kirk is struggling staying focused as captain of a starship and he is doubting himself if this is the life he wants to live. The Enterprise takes a break from exploring in a massive star base called Yorktown. The star base receives a distress call from an alien woman who lost it's crew on a distant planet. Of course the Enterprise is the best ship to help the alien woman and search for the crew. But this search and rescue mission turns very ugly when they encounter one of the most ruthless villains who's hatred of the Federation puts the whole enterprise crew to the test.

I think they did a marvelous job again and made a Star Trek movie just as great as the previous two installments. The villain was not as interesting as Kahn but the movie makes up for it by focusing on the characters. The story lays more focus on new development like the bond that grows between Bones and Spock and the new female alien character Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, who did a marvelous job) which Scotty encounters. The third act of the movie is the best (with an excellent soundtrack, Beastie Boys and Star Trek mixes very well!) and they once again pull out all the stops with visual and sound effects.

The only caveat I have with this film is the slow start and the main plot being a bit simplistic. Sometimes it feels just like a regular Star Trek episode, but then again that is also one of it's strengths.

So definitely check this one out if you liked the previous two Star Trek films, it's a solid and very entertaining journey.

After being attacked by a huge swarm of unknown ships the crew of the Starship Enterprise are separated and spread across a mysterious planet, there they must search for each other and battle a new villain who is against all that the federation stands for.

Star Trek: Into Darkness was well received when first released but afterwards many fans changed their opinions and it began to receive less than lukewarm feelings from people who went back to watch it, due to it's non Star Trek feel. So with new writers (Simon Pegg and Doug Jung) and a new director (Justin Lin, known for directing some of the Fast and Furious films) is Star Trek Beyond able to recapture the original feeling of Star Trek? Yes, it more than does this. In fact this ,the third film in the new series of Star Trek movies, feels like an extended episode from the original series. There is a lot of fun to be had with this film and in all honesty it might actually have a running time that is just over two hours but when watching it the pace is so fast and the action is so well shot the running time only seems to be just over 45 minutes. Another thing that new director Lin has been able to successfully do is bring the audience into the actual adventure, the audience doesn't just watch the film they are almost taking part, they are made to feel as if they are in the same world, the exact same situations as the characters causing them to not only laugh along with them when there are comedic moments ,which nearly always hit the right mark, but also feel involved in the action and the adventure. The chemistry between all the characters is always on top form and all actors clearly get on well making the on screen chemistry more realistic especially between Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban). The characters of Spock and Bones ,helped by Pegg and Jung's script, go together so well creating a really well thought out and timed double act while still keeping the frame of the original characters, still providing the much needed action and adventure that is vital to this sort of film. As for the Visual Effects ,next to Ghostbusters, they are some of the best to be seen on the big screen this year and go towards creating an even greater sense of realism and once again pulling the audience in with immense ease.

Fans will be pleased by this new entry into the Star Trek series, because Star Trek Beyond not only feels like a successful extended episode but the acting, story, characters, action, effects and so much more go towards creating a fun, crowd pleasing sci-fi adventure.

**** <-- Four Stars

Okay, as a lifelong Star Trek fan and not a big fan of the last movie, I had serious reservations about this one - especially as it was directed by Justin "Fast & Furious" Lin. However, credit where it's due, he made a great attempt at this, and it turned out to be good fun (and WAY better than Jar Jar Abrams' "Into Darkness" mess). It's STILL not Star Trek like the REAL Star Trek - there are no memorable lines here and you won't be playing particular scenes over and over in your head, but this is the world we now live in. They've given all your other favorites the same treatment (and ruined them too), James Bond and Star Wars being among the countless franchises to fall victim. Somehow we've got the point where ALL movies need to be a politically correct as possible, have as a diverse a cast as possible, and appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Hollywood want EVERYBODY to be fans of EVERYTHING from here on - no more closed communities thank you very much.

Given all this, and that Star Trek now has to fit this terrible template, this movie could have been SO much worse. Yes, it has plot holes galore (they're on purpose, don't you know? So the fans can have "insane theory" videos on YouTube), but it also has lots of references to the Star Trek Universe over the last 50 years to celebrate the 50th anniversary. These are subtle enough to indicate that they were put there for the real HARDCORE fans, which I thought was respectful and made me sit up and pay a bit more attention every time I spotted one. One thing that really bugged me though - some of the actors, as they get older, look even LESS like the characters should on screen. For instance, Simon Pegg would want to start piling on the pounds to play an older Scotty, and in the same vain Zachary Quinto should probably lose a few. But these are minor details for sure.

To finish on a positive note, Sofia Boutella who plays the alien Jaylah is really good, and a very likely contender to replace Anton Yelchin who sadly passed away recently. As I've read they won't be recasting Chekov (good!) then I think she would make a fine addition to the crew. Someone make this happen!

If you're a Trek fan at all you SHOULD go see this one. It's SLIGHTLY dragged out near the end, but there is at least a solid 90 minutes of big screen action to be enjoyed in there somewhere. A fitting way to celebrate 50 years of Trek? Maybe. I certainly didn't feel like walking out like during the last outing.. and during Star Wars... and during SPECTRE....