Review of Star Trek Beyond (2016) by Jesse O — 03 Nov 2016

I was really excited when I first found out that Simon Pegg, who also plays Scotty, was helping to write the script (along with Doug Jung). And I was excited because I'm fairly certain that Mr. Pegg is a big fan of the original Star Trek series.

I don't even have to do my research on that, because I just know. So I'm sure the fact that he got to co-write a Star Trek movie was part of his bucket list. As far as my excitement to see Mr.

Pegg's effort in this movie. I don't know what to say. I genuinely liked the movie, it's not even that I didn't like it. But I just felt that there was something different that would have pushed it to be in the same category as the first two films in the rebooted franchise.

The first film was important because it got the entire group together to establish this world these characters inhabit. The second movie was important because it deepened Kirk's and Spock's relationship and made it a focal point of the narrative.

This movie, sadly, just doesn't have any of that. And I'm not saying that the previous films in the rebooted franchise are absolutely essential viewing, though I found both of them to be supremely entertaining, but they at least made an effort to make it seem like you were watching something that was important.

Yea, there might not have been much in the way of consequences from film to film, but each narrative, in a vacuum, was important to the characters at that point in time. I can't say that with this movie.

They certainly make the effort, but this feels more like an episode of a TV series, if I'm being perfectly honest. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but for a major summer blockbuster, it honestly falls a little bit flat.

Particularly in the fact of, say, the release of The Force Awakens late last year that revived the Star Wars franchise with a bang. They're three films in, with another one planned, into this reboot Star Trek, so they're probably settling into a comfort zone and I feel that this film is representative of that.

I don't wanna say that the film was uninspired, because it's not even close to that, but, like I said, there's no real sense of importance to anything that's happening here. You know the characters aren't really gonna suffer much in the way of actual consequence.

They may be in trouble, but they'll always fight their way back and win in the end and save the world. With the unfortunate death of Anton Yelchin, Chekov's character will not be replaced, but that was a situation that was out of their hands.

But I'm sure that the fourth film will be more of the same. A new villain and dangerous situations that the crew will overcome, fairly, easily. The most inspired moments of the film come from the addition of a new character in the way of Jaylah.

I really like the character and she's a more than welcome addition to the crew, hopefully she's part of the fourth film. She'd almost have to be, but I may be off on that. Another part of the film that I had problems with is the fact that there's just too much technobabble going on.

To the point that I just sort of zoned out and stopped paying attention. That happened to me a lot during the movie, if I'm being honest. I just didn't find myself caring that much during some scenes.

The film is still solid, of course, the dialogue, outside of the technobabble, is pretty strong all things considered. The cast is, as usual, really good here. So that's not really much of a problem for me.

The problem, as I mentioned, is that this just doesn't feel like an important story that needed to be told in this re-imagined Star Trek. The action is solid, but it's not like it's outstanding or world-changing.

So, yea, I don't really know what else I can really say about this movie. It's entertaining and all of that, but it should have been better than it actually was. If this was a TV pilot, then it would actually be a pretty good starting point.

As the third movie in a series where the previous two movies were really good, this isn't obviously a bit of a comedown. It's still a solid sci-fi/action flick. But this is nothing more than just a rental.