It’s plainly a really good Sci-Fi movie. Beyond really focuses on the characters and delves in deeper into them. Once again Chris Pine leads the charge as Kirk, but he faces struggles that require an entire team effort to overcome. The dialogue is far better than the previous films, even the one-liners come through. Can’t go wrong with Idris Elba as the main villain either. Visually it looks awesome. Justin Lin has the right feel for this franchise and how to make it exciting, and it shows in Beyond. Lots of fun. The Blu-ray comes packed with a bunch of cool bonus features that take you behind the scenes of the making of the movie. I am certain that Star Trek fans will love it and non-Trekkies also.
Everybody talks about how good the re-booted Star Trek Franchise is, yet everyone is sceptical about Into Darkness, nobody really considers the first to be great, and now Beyond is apparently “not enough like the original series”. J.J Abrams did a great job at revitalising this sinking franchise, and pretty much made Star Trek cool again. He stepped away from Beyond, yet he was a still a focal point in lifting this franchise from the ground. He mixed nostalgia filled moments with modern ideas, and it worked. Beyond came out this summer and is the third installment in the revitalised franchise, but how many of the 6 points will be positive?? Read on to find out.
1. Justin Lin’s directing was solid, without being spectacular.
Justin Lin stepped out of the Fast and Furious franchise to take the reigns over Star Trek. He delivered well, but was certainly not fantastic. There was nothing wrong with his directing style or methods, and he made a good, entertaining movie. J.J Abrams is a tough act to follow, and Lin did a fine job and created a thoroughly entertaining movie. It was a typical Star Trek adventure, with the whole crew in space, exploring and adventuring. I will talk about the characters later, but one of the main positives for Lin, was keeping all the characters interesting and true to them themselves. He may even have advanced in this department from Abrams. He created and advanced good character relationships throughout the whole movie. One of the major criticisms’s for Lin was the action, and I will take about this in a later point.
2. The biggest plus is the characters.
Every single character in Star Trek Beyond was how damn good some of the characters were. Karl Urban as Bones was given plenty more deserved screen time, and proved his worth with his great back-and-forth with Zachary Quinto as Spock was always entertaining. The brash James T. Kirk, played by Chris Pine had a solid performance, but I preferred the direction taken with this character in the first two movies, and he seemed like sometimes he was simply there because he is the lead. The emotional focus was placed on Bones, Spock and Lieutenant Uhura more than Pine’s character. This wasn’t a problem, as the others that I just named are very entertaining, but it was disappointing to see that they had less for Kirk to do and Pine didn’t seem fully invested in the movie. Kalara was also a solid character and was introduced well. The characters are always the focal point of any Star Trek adventure, and Beyond certainly didn’t fail in that department, but still paled in comparison to the first two.
3. There was unfortunately, one exception to the great characters.
The only exception was, Krall, the villain, played by Idris Elba. Elba didn’t put in a terrible performance, yet was far from terrific either. Krall’s motivations were unclear for the most part, especially in the first and second act. This was as a throw-away, replaceable villain, who seriously pales in comparison to Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan in Into Darkness. This isn’t to say that Krall didn’t have potential, but I simply felt that he didn’t fit into the movie very well, and lacked the drive that previous villain’s have had.
4. Simon Pegg’s writing was very smart and tidy
Despite some lacklustre parts of the movie, and the disappointing villain, Simon Pegg put together some great pieces of dialogue between the likes of Bones and Spock, and this was a serious help the overall movie. Pegg’s performance as Scotty was funny as ever, and is one of my favorites in the entire series. He had many witty lines and jokes, which never felt forced or out of place with the tone of the scene. Pegg knew what he was doing and the script was put into the correct hands. Few of the movies downfalls could be placed on Pegg’s shoulders and he did an excellent job.
5. The action struggled to entice me, and was below-par.
The action scenes are something that people were expecting Lin to thrive off, but they were sluggish and not as gripping and exciting as they should be for a Star Trek movie. Lin failed to match the excitement that Abrams brought to the screen, and they should really have been better. I don’t remember one scene in the whole movie that had me on the edge of my seat, which is disappointing. When it comes to the first two in the franchise, I could give you four or five straight away, and Beyond lacked in this department. It wasn’t awful, but as with a lot of things in the movie, it was pretty average and forgettable. There are some enjoyable sequences though, and Kalara added to these well. Star Trek shouldn’t make me have to try and seek positives from a situation and look for enjoyment, it should be handed to the viewer with exciting action pieces, alongside the characterization. Lin succeeded in one of the two, which could be looked at from two angles.
6. Overall, Star Trek Beyond is a good watch, but pales in comparison to its predecessors.
Star Trek Beyond is a solid attempt, but just isn’t the adrenaline filled adventure that I had come to expect. It offered some good moments and some lacklustre moments. There are some great characters and Kalura was introduced well. Lin made a decent movie, but I look forward to the franchise being put back into J.J Abrams hands. The poor trailers may also have created a poor vision about the movie before it even came out, which may not have helped peoples overall enjoyment of the movie, or the underwhelming box-office numbers. I would recommend this to fans of the series, as it does offer some enjoyment, but overall it pales in comparison to the other two movies.
