The stars of “Star Trek Beyond” honored their late cast mate Anton Yelchin with a minute’s silence at the film’s US premiere.
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“Anton Yelchin should be here”, Abrams continued to say.
Chris Hemsworth’s character first appeared in “Star Trek” way back in 2009 as the Starfleet commander of the USS Kelvin during its last moments battling against Nero and his crew of Romulans.
Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Sulu (John Cho) are captured by alien warlord Krall (Idris Elba), who is after a missing part of a weapon of mass destruction that’s hidden on the Enterprise. If Star Trek Beyond were an episode of the original show, it probably wouldn’t rank up there with the best of them.
This separation is what helps turn a potentially mindless but fun action movie into a film with heart. Most of the crew is captured, save for a smattering who end up stranded and scattered on the surface of the closest planet.
Then there was the matter of the screenplay, which didn’t exist until Paramount drafted Doug Jung and actor Simon Pegg to write it just a few months before production was to begin.
The clip features Spock and Bones – played once again by Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban – and they find themselves in a spot of trouble. The Star Trek movies have been a decidedly mixed bag, the best still being the 1982 “The Wrath of Khan”.
“Star Trek Beyond” delivers enough thrills to satisfy fans of the enduring science-fiction franchise – but little more.
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On the other hand, the untimely death of Anton Yelchin, who plays Mr. Chekov, does evince a note of sadness that pulls you out of the story, although there’s not really anything that could have been done about that. Yelchin’s Chekov is in the movie a lot, making his loss all the sadder. No, Abrams is already looking ahead to the recently announced STAR TREK 4, in fact, he goes so far as to call it his favourite of the rebooted franchise while speaking with Entertainment Weekly at STAR TREK BEYOND’s Comic-Con screening. There’s nothing remotely path-breaking about this film, but the visible affection of the actors for the characters’ they’re playing makes Star Trek Beyond more enjoyable than any third film in a franchise has a right to be.
