OK well I went to see the new Star Trek film last night, Star Trek Beyond, so I figured I might aswell do a review on it.
And it has to be said that the Star Trek reboot series has had a mixed reception so far as quite a few fans were left disappointed by the second film, Star Trek: Into Darkness. So who does Beyond fair??? Well let's set phasers on stun (ugh!) and find out.....
Oh and I know this is a new film so I will try and keep spoilers to a minimum and not virtually quote the whole plot like I usually do in my reviews. But for the sake of it I will issue the usual warning...
SPOILERS WILL BE AHEAD!!!
STORY
Right so the story (don't worry I won't cover the entire plot!) begins with the USS Enterprise now into its third year of its five year mission and Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is becoming somewhat disilluisioned with his role as a startship captain as he finds the daily life onboard the ship has become monotonous. So Kirk in an effort to escape the humdrum nature of his mission, applies for the post of vice admiral and commanding officer at a massive space station called Yorktown and the Enterprise soon docks there.
And while at the station, Kirk's first officer, Spock (Zachary Quinto) also learns of the news that Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who doesn't feature here) has passed away and Spock also splits up with his girlfriend and the Enterprise's comms officer, Uhura (Zoe Saldana). Kirk while speaking to the commanding officer at the base suggests that Spock be replaced as the captain of the Enterprise although he doesn't get a chance to break this news to Spock.
And not long after, Kirk receives news that the Enterprise is to be dispatched on a rescue mission after an escape pod drifts out of a nearby uncharted nebula and they find a survivor, Kalara (Lydia Wilson). Kalara then claims that her ship is stranded on the planet Altamid, which is within the nebula itself.
However the rescue turns into an ambush and the Enterprise is soon overwhelmed by a swarm of small ships that cause it to be torn apart and the swam's commander, Krall (Idris Elba) and his crew board the ship. Krall is looking for a relic called the Abronath, which Kirk had obtained and tried to use during an unsuccessful diplomatic mission (seen at the start of the film) but he is unsuccessful in finding it so instead he captures many of the Enterprise crew including Uhura and Sulu (John Cho). However Kirk and some of the other key crew members escape the severely damaged Enterprise in escape pods just before the remains of the ship crash lands on the surface of Altamid.
On the surface, Kirk is split up from the others but he is accompanied by the Entperises's main navigator, Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and the alien Kalara, who turns out to be not all she seems. And the Enterprise's chief engineer, Scotty (Simon Pegg) soon meets up with an alien scavanger, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) who takes him to her home which turns out to be an old USS starship. Meanwhile Spock and Dr "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban) land together in separate pods but Spock is badly injured from the crash but his wounds are treated by McCoy to allow them to continue.
And somehow from here Kirk and the others must find a way to rescue the Enterprise crew and stop the villainous Krall from carrying out his nerfarious plan to use the Abronath for his own destructive ends.....
THOUGHTS
Well as a follow up to Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond is an entertaining sequel and it sees the reboot series continue in good form and it sees all the main characters work well together and they continue to keep the spirit and good humour of the original series and films alive. And the depature of J.J. Abrams from the series might have been a bit of a blow but even without him and with the direction of Justin Lin, they have still created a very enjoyable film packed with good action and decent special effects.
The film however was somewhat overshadowed by the untimely deaths of two of the series actors, Leonard Nimoy, who died last year and also Anton Yelchin, who was tragically killed in a car incident. And it is rightly so that the film is dedicated to both actors who will be missed from the series although Nimoy's passing had been already worked into the film with Ambassador Spock's character having died but no doubt Chekov in future will require to be recast.
Regardless of the film's misfortunes offscreen, it still remains an enjoyable entry in the series.
PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section may contain one or two spoilers!)
So for a change I won't really do much in the way of notable scenes given that this is a new film so it will help keep the spoilers down to a bare minimum but the performances are all pretty good here.
And to kick off, Chris Pine is once again excellent as Captain Kirk and by now he has grown very comfortably into the role and he provides the right mix of Kirk's heroism, playfulness, seriousness and his sense of humour. And its quite a nice change up to have the idea of Kirk becoming a bit tired of his five year mission and being a captain of a starship and that he needs some sort of re-motivation to get him going again.
And has some good scenes but I won't really mention too many but I will give an excerpt of his opening speech where he talks about he is becoming wary of the monontony of the Enterprise's mission.
And he narrates "Captain's Log, Stardate 2263.2. Today is our 966th day in deep space - A little under three years into our five year mission. The more time we spend out here, the harder it is to tell where one day ends and the next one begins. It can be a challenge to feel grounded, when even the gravity is artificial. But while we do what we can to make it feel like home. The crew, is always, continues to act admirably despite the rigors of our extended stay here in outer space. The personal sacrifices they made. We continue to search for new life-forms in order to establish firm diplomatic ties. Our extended time in uncharted territory has stretched the ship's mechanical capacities but fortunately our engineering department, led by Mr. Scott, is more than up to the job. The ship aside, prolong cohabitation has definitely had effects on the interpersonal dynamics. Some experiences for the better and some for the worse!". And in that last moment we see Kirk being kicked out of the personal quarters of a green-skinned alien girl! (I think we are seeing a recurring theme here!).
And Kirk continues by saying " As for me, things have started to feel a little episodic. The farther out we go, the more I find myself wondering what it is we are trying to accomplish.But if the universe is truly endless, then we are not striving for something forever out of reach".
And lastly there is the scene which I will try my best NOT to spoil near the end where Kirk and the others try and stop an invasion on Yorktown. And in order to do that they decide to create a sonic distraction, which involves a certain Beastie Boys track called "Sabotage" and as they prepare to play it, Kirk says "Let's make some noise!" and when the track comes on, he smiles and says "Its a good choice!".
Zachary Quinto up next as Spock does pretty well once again although I still think he lacks the overall dynamic that Nimoy had originally brought to the role as Nimoy had always nailed the character's sense of logic and also his very dry Vulcan wit (so to speak!).
Regardless of this, Quinto still has some good moments, particularly in his scenes where Spock and McCoy are together on the planet Altamid as they share some good banter together. Spock's character also faces a dilemma regarding his time as an officer with Starfleet as a result of his future self, Ambassador Spock's passing that coincides with Kirk's own dilemma over his captaincy of the Enterpise.
And Quinto has some good moments but his funniest comes when McCoy accuses him of speaking "horseshit!" and Spock manages to quote it right back at him saying "Your theory as you put it, is horseshit!".
And lastly there is the scene where (SPOILER!!) Spock and McCoy hijack one of Krall's fighters and they both hear the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" playing as the Enterprise tries thwart Krall's assault. And as McCoy hears the music he says to Spock "Is that classical music I'm hearing???" and Spock says "Yes, doctor, I believe it is!".
Karl Urban next is excellent yet again as Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the Enterprise's chief medical officer and he nails the delivery that DeForrest Kelley used to bring to the role, yet also manages to make the part his own.
And I will only mention one scene (So SPOILER ALERT!!) where McCoy helps an injured Spock on the planet surface of Altamid. And Spock says to McCoy "Leaving me behind will significantly increase your chances of survival, Doctor" and McCoy replies "Well that's damn chivalrous of you, but completely out of the question!". And Spock continues saying "It is imperative that you locate any surviving crew" and McCoy says "Here I was thinking you cared" and Spock says "Of course I care, Leonard. I always assumed my respect for you was clear. The dialogue we have had across the years has always.." and McCoy interrupts him saying "Its okay, Spock, you don't have to say it".
However at this point both men are suddenly surrounded by a swarm of drones and McCoy says to Spock "Well at least I won't die alone!" but then suddenly, Spock is beamed up by Scotty leaving McCoy on his own. And then McCoy says to himself "Well that's just typical!" and he looks at the drones and yells "Come on you bastards!" just as he himself is beamed up!
Zoe Saldana also reprises her role well as Lt Uhura, the Enterprise's comm officer, however she doesn't really have that big a part this time round as she slightly sidelined probably in part due to her character being captured. And for the sake of quickness I won't really mention any of her scenes but she does fine anyway.
Simon Pegg next is again alot of fun as Scotty, the Enterprise's chief engineer, although let's face it his Scottish accent really isn't up to much is it?! Again I won't mention any of his specific scenes but I will mention the scene where Kirk is taken onboard Jaylah's home, which is the USS Franklin and Jaylah casually sits in the captain's seat with her feet up. And Kirk notices this and Scotty says to her "Ah, he likes that chair!" and she sheepishly get's up.
John Cho as Sulu is good once again although his role is still relatively minor but that doesn't really hinder him too much in his performance. And I will only mention one of Cho's scenes that comes near the end (SPOILER-ISH!) when Sulu is about to pilot the USS Franklin and Kirk asks Sulu "Mr Sulu....you can....fly this thing, right?" and Sulu turns to Kirk and says incredulously "You kidding me, sir?!".
Sofia Boutella next is also pretty good as the alien scavanger, Jaylah, who helps out Kirk and his crew to fight against Krall. Boutella's Jaylah is also a bit of a spunky tomboy alien character so she manages to make her character somewhat sexy and appealing without overdoing it. And Boutella appears to enjoy having her character saying Kirk and Scotty's names strangely such as calling Kirk "James T." and Scotty "Montgomery Scotty". Boutella also get's to kick a bit of ass in the film and she plays a key part in the fight later on in the film but I won't say anymore about that.
Anton Yelchin in his last performance onscreen does very well again as Chekov, the main navigation officer of the Enterprise and he plays a slightly larger part here than normally, which giving this is his last film this is more appropriate.
Yelchin sadly of course died in a freak accident involving his car, which rolled back and crushed him in his driveway and he passed away just a month prior to the film's release which remains one of the saddest things connected to the movie. And Yelchin's Chekov was a very good one and I'm sure it will be tough to find someone else to fill his shoes. So RIP Anton.
And last of all is Idris Elba who is fairly good as the film's main villain, Krall and later there is a plot twist involving his character but don't worry I will NOT mention it here. Elba however is somewhat let down in the role a little by his character and he isn't really given the film's best dialogue either so it doesn't really make for a very memorable villain but ultimately Elba does the best he can with what he is given here.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the film's director, Justin Lin, steps into the directorial helm here in place of J.J. Abrams and he actually does a pretty good job.
Lin himself having already directed three of the Fast and Furious films is no stranger to directing action films so he manages to make the transition to directing sci-fi (or sci-fantasy more accurately I guess) very well. Lin also for the most part keeps the pacing of the film pretty tight given it just runs over the two hour mark there are few moments where the film really lags. So suffice to say Lin does a fine job here and shows that the Star Trek series is in safe hands here in Beyond with Lin at the helm.
As for the film's music score, well it was again composed by Michael Giacchino who scored the previous two reboot films. And to be honest I've not been that big a fan of Giacchino's Star Trek scores and this one is no different as its just another rather bland action score that we have come to expect from the series.
And I've never really been that keen on Giacchino's Star Trek theme either as it lacks the catchiness or the epic feel of the ST themes of Jeremy Goldsmith and James Horner both of whom provide great ones for the franchise. However to be fair the score is far from terrible and its OK but for me it just doesn't stand out and I think the series would be better served with a different composer in the future (sorry Michael!).
FLAWS
As for STB's flaws.....yeah there are some but I can't go too deep into them as of yet so I will only mention a few.
So to start one of the problems I had with the film is that get's itself off to a rather slow start and while I quite like the idea of Kirk needing a change of pace from his constant life as a starship captain, the film takes time for it to get going. And for me it only really does that when Krall launches his assault on the Enterprise and then it starts to pick up the pace.
Another issue I have is one that I have with the previous two reboot films and that is the film lacks a really good villain and no offence to Benedict Cumberbatch's Kahn in Into Darkness, but for me he didn't quite cut it and don't get me started on Eric Bana from Star Trek! Now I appreciate that Idris Elba does what he can with his role as Krall but the character himself doesn't really make for a very compelling bad guy, not only that but when you combine this with the rather slow paced way that Krall talks in the film it doesn't really provide the character with a big impact.
I also felt it was a bit daft how they STILL continue with Kirk's fetish for green skinned alien women! And yeah OK to be entirely fair that fetish in this film is strictly limited to a very quick moment at the start of the film where Kirk is kicked out of the quarters of such an alien girl but it is plot device that is starting to become a bit tiresome and predictable.
And lastly I felt the inclusion of the Beastie Boys track "Sabotage" again, was also a bit cringeworthy and again its like they needed to find some way to work it back in! Although to the filmmaker's credit they left out the use of the f-word from the song in the film this time round, which has no place in a Star Trek film anyway, which always bugged me about the first reboot film how they left it in! In a way its kind of fun but for me its really cheesy that they wanted to include it again.
And that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum it all up, Star Trek Beyond is a very enjoyable film and it sees the reboot franchise continue in fine style and it probably is a better film than Into Darkness although unlike alot of disgruntled Star Trek fans, I did like Into Darkness. But the cast here all give a good account of themselves once again and the film features some good action and decent special effects, even if they are featured in over abundance at times.
And yes the film get's off to a slow start and yes the film's main villain is once again pretty weak and not that menacing but if you can forgive that then there is much to enjoy in Star Trek Beyond and its still well worth a look.
Right so that is it for the now and I'll back on here soon.
Till the next un bye the now!
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