Review of Star Trek Beyond (2016) by Drakepreatorius — 23 Jul 2016

Star Trek Beyond (Spoiler Alert).

Drake Preatorius, writer for IDiSF.com.

I waited in anticipation for this film. I was the first person in the theater on Friday morning. As a fanfiction writer, I was looking to see how closely the plots ofStar Trek Beyond (Spoiler Alert).

Drake Preatorius, writer for IDiSF.com.

I waited in anticipation for this film. I was the first person in the theater on Friday morning. As a fanfiction writer, I was looking to see how closely the plots of my Krall stories measured up to actual plot of the film. I was surprised by the outcome. Mine are much better.

J.J. Abrams, creator of Fringe, director of Star Trek Beyond and Star Wars decided to step aside for this film. Instead, they selected Justin Lin as the director. As you all probably know, Lin has directed the Fast and Furious franchise for several years. Therein lies the first problem with this film. It is no longer a science fiction franchise. It is now an action film franchise, replete with motorcycle chases, fighting scenes and a constant barrage of phaser fire.

Without revealing the plot, which was threadbare, it would be sufficient to say it was like eating a bowl of stone soup. Kirk is bored with his role of captain and after only three years as a captain, with no Starfleet degree, he applies for a job as a vice-admiral. He seemed to feel that the job was unchallenging, yet throughout the film he constantly announces that he would be nothing without Spock. This leads us to the next shortcoming of the film, the triad.

Star Trek fanboys whined like babies who had been pulled from their momma’s teets when Uhura replaced McCoy as one of the lead characters in the first two films. The Star Trek powers finally relented and attempted to recreate the “bromance” between these fellas, but they failed. The truth is, it cannot be done on film. The relationship between Kirk, Bones and Spock developed over three seasons as the actors worked closely together. The relationships between these three characters in the film seemed inauthentic. Kirk is in love with Kirk, which is not too far from case in the television version and although there is banter between Spock and McCoy throughout the film, the chemistry that existed in the television show just doesn’t exist between Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto.

This leads us to the third misfire in the film. It is a rehash of the Star Trek 2009. We get to see the same stunts, over again and this time there are no surprises, falling ships rising, Kirk floating in space, fancy transporter tricks and most disappointing, the amber effect from the Abram’s TV series Fringe. I found myself falling asleep halfway through the film.

What they did right was add a bit more content about the female characters. Uhura and Jayla kick butt and take names. There is also a low level female villain and the last minute addition of Shohreh Aghdashloo as Commodore Paris which contributes little to the plot. It comes across as tokenism. One is left wondering if she was related to Lieutenant Tom Paris and his father Admiral Paris from the Voyager show, or if Pegg just couldn’t think of any other names.

I hear that there is another Star Trek in the works. The best thing Paramount can do is wrench this franchise from the hands of J.J. Abrams and Roberto Orci and hire some DS9 and Voyager writers. They, at least, are familiar with the Star Trek canon. The other thing they can do to save the franchise is to stop courting the video game crowd, who prefer Star Wars anyway, and put the science fiction back into the Star trek franchise.