Review of Star Trek Beyond (2016) by Leon B — 02 Dec 2016

Review:

After enjoying the previous Star Trek movies, I was really looking forward to watching this film but once again, I was quite disappointed with the outcome, because it seemed like a right mess. It certainly looked spectacular, which was expected, and the witty script wasn't bad but it really isn't character driven and it jumped in right at the deep end, way too fast. You do get to hear about Captain Kirk's (Chris Pine), thirst for excitement at the beginning of the movie and the director touched on the relationship between Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) but apart from that, the characters haven't really moved on from the previous movies. With that aside, it's full of intense drama and the action scenes were quite impressive. Idris Elba (Krall), played the enemy quite well and his mannerisms and and strange make-up worked for his character but his purpose for causing so much destruction was slightly weak. Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), was one of the best introductions in the movie, and the whole look and feel of her character, worked well alongside Scotty (Simon Pegg) but the main character, Captain Kirk, seemed quite moody and he lost his sense of humour, which was what made the previous movies so great. It's still a watchable film, which pushes the enterprise crew to the limit but it's not the best in the new franchise. Watchable!

Round-Up:

It's a shame that J.J. Abrams didn't return as the director in this franchise, because the original Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, really did work and the mixture of wit and intense drama was put together well. He did produce this movie, so he hasn't left the franchise all together but with his busy schedule with the Star Wars franchise, it's totally understandable that he has handed over the baton. With Justin Lin stepping into directors chair, and Simon Pegg contributing his writing skills, they certainly done the whole Star Trek brand justice with this film, and with Anton Yelchin and Leonard Nimoy passing away before its release, it was good to see condolences for them, in the end credits. Justin Lin's previous work include Better Luck Tomorrow, Annapolis, Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast & Furious 5 & 6 and a couple of episodes of True Detective, and with over 10 projects in the pipeline, which include Space Jam 2, he doesn't shy away from the big projects with, huge budgets. Although the characters seemed a bit stuck in time, I still enjoyed the movie and it was good to see the original cast back together again.

Budget: $185million.

Worldwide Gross: $343million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/sci-fi movies, starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella and Joe Taslim. 6/10.