Star Trek Beyond

I admit that this chapter wasn't as good as the first two, but it was still quite enjoyable. The best part about this movie is how utterly beautiful it is. The special effects are wonderful and everything is so nice just to look at. There's always fine details and creative execution. The best parts are still probably when the various crew members get separated. This is what makes a franchise as big as "Star Trek" so much fun. It's just great to see how the characters interact and play off of each other. I couldn't get any synopsis out of this film here other than the characters going somewhere new and fighting a new enemy. Don't most characters do that?

I admit the plot could be better and the villain is a bit confusing. It's still a film in good spirits and I like all the little references to the old show, how subtle or blatant they might be. One important note. I remember hearing that in this movie the character Sulu was going to come out as gay as a way to honor his original actor, George Takei, coming out. Takei himself didn't like this idea. It is never stated that Sulu is gay, but we do see him briefly hold hands with another man implying he is. I guess it was sort of a compromise with George Takei. I like the idea of openly gay characters, but if the actor or people involved don't want it, that's just fine. It's great to see how creative and beautiful this amazing world looks and you really in on the action with the Enterprise. ***

Before I write a review I like to browse through the other comments posted first. To surmise, many have got it quite right, this is not the best Star Trek movie, but it is a good one. The story is reasonable, although there are plenty of plot holes that you have to overlook and not delve into them too deeply. I also think that the size of that deep space station is just OTT even for that century, it is far too advanced! Anyway, get over the minor flaws and you will begin to notice that they are starting to focus more on character development and interaction of the personalities within the crew. It is what real fans enjoy the most, including the odd bit of humour.

As for the highly negative reviews on here, please start to put your rankings in perspective, this is by no means a shocking movie and definitely is fit to join the Star Trek Universe. It really winds me up when people rank this movie in the same breath as some of the real shockers we have seen in the last few years!

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.

After the noisy and irretrievably stupid (though reasonably entertaining) Into Darkness, I wasn't desperate to watch this one, but when I finally did I was relieved to discover that it was even more enjoyable than the first film in the reboot, a rollicking adventure with terrific alien weapons, fun McCoy/Spock repartee, a promising newcomer alien, and a lot of really excellent action scenes.

The movie had almost all the qualities of the original series except one - the thinking part. The smartest thing in the movie is the funny opening scene, which suggests the difficulty of communication between different cultures.

But that's the last thing in the movie that suggests even a moment of thought. The main villain has very little in the way of motivation, and when he explains his purpose it's quite disappointing. Nothing in this movie is there to provoke thought, and I'm not entirely convinced that anything in the movie really makes sense, although there's nothing at the time that hit me as too absurd to live with (unlike the previous movie).

If you expect this movie, like the series, to explore racism and war culture, well, you're not going to be happy. But if you just want some old-fashioned action with some familiar characters, this totally hits the spot.

Spoiler free review: I was lucky to go to the premiere in San Diego at comic con... the night was amazing but it ended with a super fun movie. That's the best word to describe it... fun.

The difference with the past 2 Trek movies was that unlike the original films we didn't bond with this cast over 100 or 200 episodes of slower paced TV. These guys were just tossed into it. This movie gives us an idea what a show with them would be like. It's impossible of course to do. But it was such a nice break form the overreaching drama from Into Darkness.

This is still serious and has tearful moments and sincere motivations from characters... but it's also fun. Some people forget the original trek as Justin Lin told the crowd at the premiere that the original series was fun. It was funny. It was a pure comedy at times. and he's right. This movie takes all the elements the series was... (serious, funny, action, fantasy) and mixes it into one giant movie. Including the Shatner like fist fight.

Loved it.

Dialogue from Simon Pegg and Doug Jung was absolutely natural to the characters and everyone had their moments. The scenes of different characters sharing moments with each other was great.

New characters Jayla is terrific. Sofia was great in the part.

It's sort of a typical Justin Lin movie too as in the set pieces, action scenes fx were simply amazing... breathless... the character moments fantastic, warm, sweet... the story was very good but some holes and confusion at times but it's so worth having that for the pure fun this is.