Star Trek Beyond : Movie Review


Star Trek Beyond (2016) - Movie Poster
"Star Trek Beyond" is as close as the new cinematic reboots have gotten to emulating the spirit of the original Gene Roddenberry-created series and subsequent big-screen movies. This will be welcome news for long-time Trekkies and purists who may have thought 2009's "Star Trek" and 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness" lost a little of their spirit, trading larger universal questions and philosophical musings for whiz-bang action sequences (as only a casual fan of the property, I thought both were terrific). The new blood behind the cameras and page likely have something to do with this return to the vintage feel of classic "Star Trek"—albeit still with plenty of daring stunts, chases and all-around thrills. Taking over for previous helmer J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, director Justin Lin (2013's "Furious 6") and scribes Simon Pegg (2011's "Paul") and Doug Jung (2003's "Confidence") have concocted a slightly more contained story that takes its characters away from their spacecraft's bridge and traps them in uncharted territory from which they must work together to escape. One's initial impulse to claim "Star Trek Beyond" is a slighter sequel proves unfounded as its deeper existential themes reveal themselves.

Three years into the USS Enterprise's five-year mission, fatigue has set in for the crew as both Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) are experiencing early midlife crises. Celebrating his birthday with a heavy heart, Kirk isn't sure he has earned his position in Starfleet and cannot help but consider how he has passed the age of his father when he was killed. For Spock, word that the elder Ambassador Spock (the late Leonard Nimoy, glimpsed in photos) has passed away leads him to contemplate the inevitability of his own death while putting his cooled romance with Lieutenant Uhura (Zoë Saldana) to the test. Kirk and Spock's respective inner conflicts must be placed on the backburner when a mission to rescue an imperiled crew stranded on a nearby planet reveals itself to be a trap, the Enterprise ambushed by a squad of drone soldiers led by alien warlord Krall (Idris Elba). Krall is in search of a powerful, potentially deadly artifact in their possession, and he will do whatever necessary to obtain it.


See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review

Author : Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com.