Star Trek Beyond

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.

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!

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.

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....