So the newest entry into the Star Trek Movie franchise known as the “JJverse” came out yesterday. this review will include some spoilers…in an effort to be complete.
Star Trek:beyond is everything you would expect from a JJ Abrams movie. loud explosions, lots of action, a story line that was not to deep, geeky enough to entice long time fans, but still shallow enough to grab newer fans as well. In keeping with the “tradition of blowing up the Enterprise in the third movie….yep, they did that here as well. But in this case the destruction of the Enterprise is welcome as the fans view of the JJ Abrams edition was HATED.
Idris Elba who plays the main villain Krall, has a twist to his story, but while the twist explains his motivations, he still comes off as a rather “flat” one dimensional villain. Sofia Boutella who plays Jaylah is a welcome edition to the star trek universe. Her character is well developed, and has the heft to it, that Krall is missing. Simon Pegg who plays “Scotty” and also co wrote the script, shows this fact in that Scotty has a lot of scenes, and is one of the main focal points of the movie. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto who play Kirk and Spock, have meaty parts, and both have interesting motivational arcs in the movie. The hoopla last month about Sulu being “gay” is very overblown as the scene lasts all of a few seconds, and has no real impact to the film. Tt is almost a throwaway scene, but it does show his daughter, a nice tie in to Demora Sulu’s appearance in Generations.
The last act seemed a bit rushed, and I hope a directors cut gets released to “fill in the gaps in pacing”. The destruction of the enterprise, is well done, and even gives another nod to ST:Generations destruction of the Enterprise D. The rebuilt Enterprise A FINALLY looks like the classic ship we know and love.
Overall I give it 3 out of 5 stars. It was a good summer popcorn flick, a bit forgetable….just like every other JJ movie. This is also the first of the new trek movies, that makes me excited for the next installment. They did get this one right.
Thank you Jon. I still haven’t seen it. It sounds like I enjoyed the last two more than you.
i enjoyed the first two, but this one is the best of the three. now on to the forth movie…