Review of Star Trek Beyond (2016) by Bill M — 15 Jan 2017

Star Trek Beyond really saves face for the series after the uninspired and shamelessly derivative "Into Darkness". It's a back to basics Trek, an original series episode as a feature length movie but with a few modern touches (no dont run away it's all good!) it's a very funny, breathlessly paced adventure film that wastes little time with exposition and just sets off on a sprint.

The villain is once again somewhat underwritten and half baked in his nefarious plot (although Idris Elba dose really good work with what he's given) and the last act is a regrettably chaotic clusterfuck of stuff happening that gets a bit tiresome, plus the mostly great effects work in this film suddenly goes out the window in a big way and we get the typical hollywood blockbuster climax where the production was obviously getting close to crunch time and things had to be wrapped up leaving many of the cgi at the climax looking unfinished and textureless, and it all goes on for so long that it becomes hard to invest in it all.

But overall this is more of what I want from the new series, a (sort of) return to old school trek. Some of the chrarcters are a bit sidelined (including, quite sadly, the late Anton Yelchin as Chekov, who isnt given a whole lot to do) but mostly the way the plot seperates the crew for most of the movie creates interesting little dynamics, especially satisfying is Bones and Spock's (Karl Urban and Zachery Qunto, as terrific as ever) buddy movie banter.

Thres is also, notably, some truly brillinatly inventive camera work and very creative action set pieces that feel refreshing amidst all the big budget sameness of most summer movies. Lets hope they continue the good work laid down by this flawed but great film.

Roll on part four, or twelve.