Review: Fun is the key word in the very entertaining ‘Star Trek Beyond’

Posted on July 29, 2016

By MARK VIOLA

This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek” as well as the seventh year since director J.J. Abrams rebooted the franchise in 2009.

As a fan of the original incarnations of “Star Trek” I was pleasantly surprised by 2009’s “Star Trek,” which, while having its share of flaws, was an enjoyable experience and a welcome addition to the franchise. Abrams’ second film, 2013’s “Star Trek into Darkness” was not nearly as successful to me, although I have to admit that I am somewhat off the curve in my critique of that movie.

While I contend “Into Darkness” was a well-made and a well-acted film, its various story problems resulted in a final product that I did not find terribly enjoyable.
Now we have “Star Trek Beyond,” the third installment in the rebooted film series, with Justin Lin (“Fast Five”) taking over the directing duties and Simon Pegg–who plays Scotty in the movies and has written such films as “Hot Fuzz” and “The World’s End”–co-writing the screenplay.

And I have to say, for a “Star Trek” film directed by Justin Lin and co-written by Simon Pegg, “Star Trek Beyond” is pretty much exactly what I would expect a “Star Trek” film to be like if it was directed by Justin Lin and co-written by Simon Pegg.

Sure there are plot holes and convenient coincidences. Sure it might not be as well directed and produced as the previous two “Star Trek” films. Sure, there is too much shaky cam.

But–and this is a very big but–“Star Trek Beyond” is fun. A lot of fun. (You’re going to see that word a lot in this review.) Whereas “Star Trek into Darkness” was trying to be the highbrow “Star Trek” film we as fans are always saying we want, the pursuit made its flaws that much more glaring and a much less enjoyable experience.

And that’s why “Star Trek Beyond,” despite its flaws, works so well. It knows exactly what it is and that is a “Star Trek” action movie, pure and simple. As best I can compare it to previous movies, I would say it has the action of “First Contact” and the craziness of “A Voyage Home.” It is not as good as either as those to be sure, but I still had a ton of fun with it, enough that I can pretty much forgive all the problems–except the shaky cam, because nobody outside of Paul Greengrass directing a Jason Bourne movie should touch that.

“Star Trek into Darkness” ended with the crew of the Enterprise leaving on its five-year mission and “Star Trek Beyond” picks up the story three years later. If visiting new planets and meeting new civilizations can ever become routine, it had become so for the crew, including Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin).

They finally get a shake-up to the routine when they visit Starfleet’s latest and biggest space station, but their visit is short-lived after receiving a call for help to rescue the crew of a ship which crash-landed on a planet in an unexplored nebula. Of course the Enterprise is sent to help. I don’t want to spoil what happens next, so I’ll just say that from the first moments the Enterprise arrives, the film’s action is cranked up to 11.

One of my favorite parts of this movie is the fact that, after two movies reintroducing us the new cast and this new version of our favorite characters, it finally feels like they have become a crew. Gone are the forced character tensions, such as those between Kirk and Spock in “Into Darkness,” replaced with the comedic bickering popular in the original movies. This film is a showcase of the friendship between Bones and Spock and the provide plenty of laughs.

I do have to point out that there are plenty of script problems, but it’s harder to care about them when you’re laughing and having so much fund.

Less forgivable are the production problems. I’ve already mentioned the shaky-cam, but its use is quite prevalent during the action scenes, and it’s hard sometimes to figure out exactly what is going on during some moments. The special effects also seem to have taken a dip here, with the work done in the previous two movies standing above this film’s effects.

Overall, “Star Trek Beyond” is a very fun and enjoyable movie and while it does have it’s flaws, I’d rather than a flawed but entertaining movie over one that is flawed without the entertainment.

The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence.

(This is a abbreviated version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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