I know I'm in the
unpopular opinion when I say the first two movies in the Star Trek
reboot have been kind of terrible. Sure, 2009 Star Trek was fun to
watch with all the Red Bull-infused action scenes and some genuinely
funny moments from the new cast, but that only slightly covered up
the fact that the movie was kind of brain dead plot-wise and didn't
seem to know how to shoot a single non-action scene without a lens
flare. Throw in an entirely godawful reworking of arguably the best
movie in the entire Star Trek franchise with Into Darkness (stupid
plot, wasted potential, idiotic character arcs, MORE LENS FLARES)
and you had a new franchise seemingly aimed at telling an audience
they were idiots while taking their money. Now, with J.J. Abrams off
playing with Stormtroopers and Paramount desperate to continue this
now-farcically bad parody of what made the 60s TV series so great,
Justin Lin has taken the reins to see what his rather incredible
action chops can do with a property once known more for its
intelligence than any action scene. The result: a nearly perfect
Star Trek movie. Yeah, I'm impressed.
Star Trek Beyond
is awesome. The color palate, unlike the previous sequels and their
overly dark motifs, is vibrant and pleasant, the named crew finally
gets enough screen time to be something more than place holders,
villain Krall (Idris Elba) is somehow insane AND sympathetic, the
action sequences are well-made and fun to watch, Uhura (Zoe Saldana)
finally gets to do stuff other than be a whiny Spock girlfriend and
space station city Yorktown somehow brilliantly fuses the whole
reckless abandon adventure mentality of the original series with the
quasi-utopian vision of The Next Generation. You heard that right:
this movie was practically made for both Star Trek TV camps. Even
Gene Roddenberry couldn't do that!
As for bad, while
Bones (Karl Urban), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Saldana) and
Scotty (Simon Pegg) all finally step out of the shadow of Kirk
(Chris Pine) to become well-rounded, believable characters in their
own rights, neither Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) nor Sulu (John Cho)
actually have anything to do and still kind of remain the same blank
slates they've been for three movies now. While this is can be
chalked up to the already two-plus hour movie being somehow too
short, it does unfortunately make the rather forced “Sulu has a
husband” plot line feel like Director Lin was only doing it
because he just couldn't think of anything else to make at least one
of these characters minutely more interesting. Whatever. Five out of
seven from one out of seven isn't bad progress.
As for watching
the movie: do that. Seriously. If you liked the original 60s series
and found the Abrams movies to be too much flare and no substance,
this is what you've been subconsciously pining for these last 8
years. If you somehow liked The Next Generation and its exciting
ways to have alien conferences calls, the whole “perfect world”
aesthetic will make you happy enough to fall for this movie and
maybe even give the original another go. How's that for progressive?
Justin Lin (Fast
and Furious 6) proves he can not only make bland plots awesome but
can somehow save a franchise from itself with Star Trek Beyond, a
fun, sometimes hilarious, always hopeful look at what would probably
happen if we'd just give NASA our money for spaceships already! 3
years into their 5 year exploration mission, Kirk and Co. respond to
a distress signal in an uncharted nebula that promptly destroys the
Enterprise and strands them in various regions of the hostile
planet. Go watch the movie to find out the rest. If The Beastie Boys
aren't your favorite band afterward, you weren't watching it right.
My score: 9/10.
Rest in Peace, Anton Yelchin. You were a lousy Kyle Reese
(Terminator: Salvation) and your agent put you in too many romantic
comedies (Burying The Ex), but when a cowardly character had to
man-up to face an impossible evil (Odd Thomas, Fright Night, The
Green Room), no one did it better than you. Respect.
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