Hey folks, night one of San Diego Comic-Con is over, and I opened this year in a pretty big way. The fine folks at Paramount Pictures arranged a rather impressive IMAX showing of STAR TREK BEYOND on an outdoor screen along the Marina behind the convention center. The entire cast showed up, walking a red carpet and doing an intro hosted by Conan O’Brien. Zachary Quinto said some lovely words about Leonard Nimoy, who is sadly no longer with us, and J.J. Abrams showed up and asked the entire crowd to have a moment of silence for Anton Yelchin… it lasted a whole minute, and you could feel the emotion from everyone there. Then the introduction of the screening got even more impressive with a laser light show, and an impressive firework display, and the San Diego Orchestra played the movie’s theme. Oh, I almost forgot, the orchestra was playing the soundtrack for the movie LIVE while we watched it, which really added to the experience – forget 3D, you haven’t lived until you’ve watched a movie with a live score playing. Now I’ll admit, seeing movies this way can sometimes sway your judgement of the final product, so I tried to remain objective and unbiased with my review below. While I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this night, I write about the film in the most honest way possible, so don’t feel like you’re hearing from someone who was pampered into giving undue positivity.

This installment opens with Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) attempting to give an artifact to a race of aliens as a sort of gift between species, but the exchange doesn’t go well, sort of mimicking the chaotic first contact opening of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. It’s a lighthearted moment that lets the audience know this outing is going to have some fun mixed in with the action. Kirk gives his Captain’s Logs aboard the USS Enterprise, citing how his adventures three years into their five-year mission have become “episodic” and that perhaps he’s ready for another line of duty. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is having relationship woes with Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) tries to counsel the pointy-eared officer with human advice. We eventually learn that Spock is considering leaving Starfleet to focus efforts on rebuilding the Vulcan culture. As the Enterprise docks with a newly built Federation space station of enormous proportions, so big that it houses whole cities that overlap one another like an M.C. Escher drawing, they are approached by a ship in distress with a passenger who desperately needs help to save her crew. The Enterprise takes her and heads out to lend a hand, but they’re attacked by a bee-like swarm of ships that quite literally destroy the their vessel. Kirk and Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) escape, as does Scotty (Simon Pegg), and separately McCoy and Spock. Uhura and Sulu (John Cho) are captured along with the ship’s crew, and held by a ruthless alien named Krall (Idris Elba), who for some reason wants to steal the very artifact Kirk tried to give away unsuccessfully at the beginning of the story. We don’t find out his true intentions until the final act of this action-packed story. Scotty also meets a tough female alien named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), who may be our heroes’ best hope for survival.

Justin Lin (FAST & FURIOUS) directs this outing from a script by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, and Pegg’s smart sense of humor definitely shows through in this outing. Where INTO DARKNESS felt brooding and heavy, this sequel is more about watching our stars have great and often humorous character moments. That’s not to say there aren’t some dark elements at play here, as the peril has to be constant to keep the story going. But this is safely the most “fun” of the new TREK films. The only disappointing factors are the displacement of the crew being separated for a majority of the story, and the destruction of the Enterprise so early in the film, meaning there’s not much opportunity here for space exploration – something many would argue is what STAR TREK is supposed to be about in the first place. There’s also an obvious difference in style with J.J. Abrams no longer behind the camera, and some of Justin Lin’s action beats feel a little more by the numbers and less impactful in a weird way.

The cast all seem to be giving it their all, and the shining stars of this outing are Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto, who deliver some wonderful interaction with their characters that feels a cut and above some of the others. Pegg fares well with his back and forth toward Boutella, and Pine gets plenty of moments to show the always brave side of Kirk… but while some characters excel with their lines, others feel underwritten. Yelchin, who passed away recently in a very tragic way, seems underused here and doesn’t really have much to do. There’s a weird feeling as an audience member in that many of us would undoubtedly hope he’d get some nice glory moments in this one, but it’s clear they weren’t sure how best to use him this time out, which is unfortunate. John Cho is given a few cocksure Sulu moments that will get cheers, but also comes across like an afterthought next to some of the other principals. I honestly don’t envy Pegg trying to balance all these personalities while still creating a rollicking sci-fi adventure, and in truth the end result could have been much worse, but it does feel like there’s an imbalance present during this outing, perhaps the result of editing sacrifices for running time. Idris Elba is absolutely one of the greatest actors working today, and tries to make Krall menacing and formidable, but we learn his motives a little too late in the story to really allow for the character to breathe properly. It’s a shame, as he actually has some understandable reasoning behind his actions, but the reveal comes across more like an afterthought than a structured character background.

There’s a weird irony (I suppose) in the line Chris Pine delivers early in the film, calling his adventures “episodic”, likely a joke meant to reference the original TV series and that crew’s episodic adventures, but these movies are quickly starting to feel the same in that they’re kind of just more of the same each time. One thing this outing smartly does is pay loving tribute to the great Leonard Nimoy, and in some ways echoes the heartache all of us classic Trek fans felt through his passing. I’m sure with his death being so fresh when they filmed this, it felt like a natural thing to honor his legacy from a story perspective, especially since he was such an important part of kicking off the new TREK movie universe. All in all STAR TREK BEYOND is a fun and frenetic ride, even if it never manages to ‘wow’ us. Abrams had a talent for finding ways to create shock and awe moments in the first two outings, and Lin seems more content to just put our characters through the motions without building the intensity. So it’s a sort of STAR TREK by the numbers exercise, delivering things we know and like, even if we don’t feel like the final product is all that new or different. That said, even an average TREK movie (or story) is still almost always highly watchable.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•