I like the rebooted Star Trek franchise. JJ Abrams, like he always does well, cast correctly and put a couple fun films together, laying the foundation for someone to take over. The new director, fresh off of Fast and Furious (another “family”) is Justin Lin. His imprint on Star Trek is a little fun, cool action, and furthering of the brand. Beyond won’t blow you away, but it will be a solid diversion with a fun group of actors.
Beyond starts with the Enterprise out in space for a LONG period of time. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are pondering big life decisions as they take a respite on a Federation base. However, a rescue mission calls on the Enterprise with disastrous effects because of Krall (Idris Elba). Krall strands the crew on a new planet where they encounter Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), who has some knowledge of their new adversary.
Justin Lin is best known as an action director. Star Trek Beyond boasts some decent action sequences; definitely the best ones of the Trek movies. Lin is great at putting fun spins on predictable action sequences. The preliminary assault on the Enterprise has the crew Inception-style running through the ship. Motorcycles are used to fun effect; even the Beastie Boys help solve a problem. Lin does overuse quick cutting, to the point where I felt disoriented more than a few times and frustratingly lost in where everyone was. That being said, Lin makes the action fresh enough that Star Trek Beyond is still a decent way to spend a couple hours without becoming too incomprehensible.
Simply put though, Star Trek Beyond is an extended workplace sitcom. There is good in that. The movie is best when the cast is riffing off of each other. Bones (Karl Urban) and Spock: buddy movie needs to happen more often. Those two are dynamite together. Urban also does some great serious work talking to Chris Pine about Kirk’s doubts because of his upcoming birthday. Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are given material more befitting their talent level, outside of their importance to the Kirk/Spock headliner. Simon Pegg’s script highlights the group over any one actor, positioning the Star Trek Franchise on solid ground. Any time a new character needs highlighting, the franchise has a plethora of characters to choose from, including Sofia Boutella, who was pretty solid in her intro into the Star Trek films. Unfortunately, you’ll notice how I didn’t mention the villain, mostly because Elba is pretty generically uninteresting, sadly.
Star Trek Beyond feels like comfort food for the summer, but I think that is intentional. The deaths of Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin cloud this film a LOT. This movie does its best to honor each of these men (more successfully with Nimoy), as well as pay homage to the franchise in general. I’ve no doubt the legacy of these men will live long and prosper, in part because of Star Trek Beyond.