As the shadow of the divisive Into Darkness looms heavy over Justin Lin’s celebration of 50 years of Star Trek. The latest film in the rebooted franchise looks to boldly go further into the great Beyond (ahem) than either of JJ Abrams lens-flair-ladend instalments dared to tread.
When we rejoin the familiar faces of the Enterprise crew, moral is at a low as 3 and half years into their 5 year long mission has taken its toll. None more so than for series mainstays Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), who struggle to find continued meaning in their mission as outside forces threaten to tear them away from star fleet.
It isn’t too long after arriving at Yorktown space station, a “Snow globe” like structure that will remind Trekkies of TV’s Deep Space Nine, that the Enterprise is entrusted with the assisting a downed Federation vessel on the planet of Altamid. Forcing the pair to put their troubles aside, the Enterprise is attacked by the movies Big Bad Krall (Idris Elba). Whose impressive swarm-like ships successfully destroys the Enterprise, stranding our heroes on the desolate planet.
Time spend on Altamid is really where Beyond begins to shine, as crew the is split up into pairs that as of this third in the series, have either had little screen time together or none at all. With regards to Spock and Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (Karl Urban), they are a more successful pairing whose Odd-couple antics give way to one liners that make you forget about the Kirk-Spock bromance that dominated the first two films and hanker for more of the same in the planned fourth instalment.
Like Spock and Bones, Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott’s (Simon Pegg) team-up with franchise newcomer Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) is appropriately amusing, given anytime Scotty speaks is comedic gold. But it also allows Boutella to flex her acting chops, crafting a compelling character that successfully ties in with the overall narrative without feeling forced.
The same sadly can’t be said for Zoe Saldana’s Nyota Uhura who once again is sidelined in the ‘damsel in distress‘ role, a trope that the film tries to dispel in the latter half but it can’t disguise the fact that she serves soley as a proxy to Elba’s Krall so he can Villainously layout his evil plan for the audience. Give me a corny monologue to himself if it means we can get a Saldana role more akin to her other spacefaring Guardians of the Galaxy heroine Gamora or even Neytiri from Avatar. Three films in and I get that she is in a relationship that is constantly ‘Facebook complicated’. But when your only female mainstay in the franchise is only used as a love interest or translation ‘tool’ (a role that is replaced in this film by a voice collar I should add) then you’ve got problem with mishandling of major character.
The same can also be said for both Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) and Pavel Chekvo (Anton Yelchin). With Sulu receiving positive character development that I hope gets further developed down the line. Like Saldana, Cho really isn’t given that much to work with here, with Chekvo too becoming nothing more that a sidekick in Kirk’s action scenes.
It is perhaps testament to Anton Yelchin’s acting talent however that you are fully aware of him whenever he is on screen. But given his tragic death this year, its bitter-sweet to think that his Chekvo didn’t get his time to shine in the Star Trek Universe.
Anton … you will be missed.
Overall Star Trek Beyond sails comfortably on surface delivering narrative, characters and action sequences that are professionally executed by Justin Lin without delving deeper. While Into Darkness was bleak in tone, it further pushed the relationships that were introduced in Abrams Star Trek but forgot about having fun along the way.
Beyond brings back the fun to the franchise with an instalment that, certainly has its problems, but is never dull and makes you excited to once again step on bored the Starship Enterprise.
Set phaser to Fun!
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