Star Trek Beyond

Starring: Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Sofia Boutella, Karl Urban
Directed By: Justin Lin
Written By: Simon Pegg & Doug Jung
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[rating: 3.5/5]
With its predecessor Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) a rather serious and sombre affair, it comes as a pleasant surprise at how far in the opposite direction they decided to take Star Trek Beyond. I really shouldn’t be surprised. Helmed by the Fast & Furious franchise director Justin Lin and co-penned by Simon Pegg there was no chance this was going to be a grim-dark journey into the great beyond. No, this film is loud, obnoxious, fast and a little bit silly which, as it turns out, makes for one bloody entertaining Star Trek film.

Star Trek Beyond actually starts off rather slowly, reintroducing the audience to the Enterprise and its crew. Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk dictates to his Captain’s Log the pitfalls of extended space travel and the toll it’s having on him and his crew as we see them all go about their daily routine. It isn’t until the Enterprise is docked at a Federation Out-Station that it receives a distress plea from a lone survivor of an attack in a Nebula that, of course, only the Enterprise can get to, that things kick up into over-drive. From this point the film is a fun whirlwind of entertainment, full of spectacular action scenes, charming pairings and a great new character in the form of Jaylah, Sofia Boutella, a stranded survivor who coerces Scotty, Simon Pegg, into helping her escape. This film is just plain, pure fun and its main concern is in taking the audience along for the ride.

One of the best decisions the film makes is to pair off the crew members. This allows us to see more of the crew as individuals rather than as a muddled whole. We get to see much more of the late Anton Yelchin’s adorable Chekov as he’s paired with Kirk, Zoe Saldana’s Uhura and John Cho’s Sulu both get a chance to shine and the pairing of Karl Urban’s Bones with Zachary Quinto’s Spock is just bloody delightful. All of the performers are at the top of their game, bringing such distinct and charming personality to each one of their characters that it’s hard not to enjoy being in their company again. You want more from all of these characters, so it ends up a little disappointing when the only real character arcs are again given to Kirk and Spock. We have seen these two enough over the last two films, I understand that they’re the main characters, but it wouldn’t hurt to cut their roles back a little to let the others have a chance to shine.

The film is so focused on being light and fun that it seems to forget to add a little more weight to its story and characters. Everyone is on comic-relief duty, and that’s great, but there’s a distinct lack of emotional poignancy here. The film never stops to let the audience and characters take a breath, to give itself the opportunity to explore what really makes the crew of the enterprise tick. The same goes with the villain, Idris Elba’s Krall, who actually has a very decent motivation and an interesting backstory behind him. Instead of taking a moment to explore things from Krall’s point of view, all of it is breezed past in favour of another action set-piece. Don’t get me wrong, every single action scene in this film is phenomenal. I would have just liked it to be a little more balanced.

Star Trek Beyond is in many ways the antithesis of its predecessor Star Trek Into Darkness. It has no time to be grim and serious, or even slow things down, it’s purely concerned with being a fantastically fun romp of a film that entertains and delights. Even though it could have used a few more emotional beats, Star Trek Beyond will have you leaving the cinema rocking out to ‘Sabotage’ from The Beastie Boys and smiling from ear to ear.