Review – Star Trek Beyond

Before the summer movie season started, I listed Star Trek Beyond number one on my list of Potential Busts this summer.  The trailers didn’t look great, J.J Abrams left the director’s chair and replacing him was Justin Lin, who’s only good films were Fast Five (2011) and Fast 6 (2013).

I don’t like admitting when I’m wrong, but I will here.  Star Trek Beyond is far from a bust.  It’s not a perfect movie, but it is an extremely entertaining and fun summer blockbuster.

The USS Enterprise crew is out exploring the furthest reaches of space when they encounter a ruthless enemy, Krall (Idris Elba), who puts them, the Federation, and the entire galaxy in danger.

Like the first two Star Trek films, the cast is great.  Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and the late Anton Yelchin all reprise their roles and don’t miss a beat, especially Urban, who has the best line and reactions through out the entire movie.

And can we talk about Idris Elba for a second.  This guy is just so effing good in every movie, and yet he flies under the radar.  2016 is the year of Elba.  Having done great voice work in Zootopia, Finding Dory, and giving new life to Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, Elba has been in three of the top grossing movies of the year.  In Beyond, he doesn’t get a lot to work with at the beginning, though, even when covered in prosthetics, his deep voice is as menacing as ever.  But, in the film’s climax, Elba delivers a really powerful speech that brings a lot of the emotion and power the movie was missing.  Can we please get this man in front of the camera some more instead of doing voices?

The movie as a whole felt like a two hour long episode of the show.  It was almost like Justin Lin took the easy route and didn’t push the envelope once in fear of screwing the film up.  The stakes weren’t very high in this one, which made the movie a little less uneventful and thrilling because I was never in fear that they weren’t going to survive into the next scene.  They also don’t even mention anything with Khan from Into Darkness, which I found strange, because some pretty heavy events occurred that I think they would talk about.  The movie was also more character driven this time, which I liked.  That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of action, they do and it’s all awesome, especially the climax of the film.  But I really enjoyed the little moments between Dr. McCoy and Spock and Scotty and Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), the alien they befriend on the planet they crash on.

Star Trek Beyond is the weakest of the new Star Trek films, but it isn’t a bad movie.  It is one that has good performances, fun action, and will entertain you for two hours.  It’s the perfect summer escape movie.

MY RATING – 3/4

Did you see Star Trek Beyond?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.