WITH the reins changing hands on the Star Trek reboot series comes a change in focus.
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Star Trek Beyond is probably the best entry in an otherwise “meh” franchise, so unless it crashes and burns at the box office like the Enterprise did in the film, keep your eyes on the horizon for another one.
The 13th “Star Trek” movie is performing in line with forecasts and will wind up the weekend with more than double the nearest rival – Illumination-Universal’s third frame of hit animated comedy “The Secret Life of Pets” with about $28 million at 4,048 locations. In 1966, the original show – starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy – began airing.
The Enterprise is three years into its five-year deep-space mission when it has the misfortune to encounter Krall (the suitably fearsome Idris Elba), a reptilian-looking alien lusting after a “death machine” artifact in the possession of Captain Kirk and Co.
From left, John Cho plays Sulu, Anton Yelchin plays Chekov, Karl Urban plays Bones, Chris Pine plays Kirk, Zachary Quinto plays Spock and Simon Pegg plays Scotty in “Star Trek Beyond”.
Granted, with all the galaxies at its disposal, and yet another TV series in dry dock, one might hope for a “Star Trek” movie with a bit more narrative heft. At the same time, the length of the mission is weighing on all of them. T. Kirk, and Zachary Quinto reprises his role as Commander Spock. Kirk, bored and questioning his choices compared to those of his late father, is considering giving up the Enterprise. Most of the crew is captured, save for a smattering who end up stranded and scattered on the surface of the closest planet. With little technology and only their wits to help them, the crew have to fight against this new enemy and save the Federation. His motivations are intentionally vague at first and, in a twisted way, understandable when they finally are revealed. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) notes in his captain’s log at the beginning of the movie that, almost three years into the mission, it’s started to feel a bit “episodic”, and Beyond gives a sense of the Enterprise crew having been through numerous more mundane adventures that might have shown up in TV episodes. Among them: Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, Simon Pegg’s Scotty, Karl Urban’s Bones and Chekov, played by the late Anton Yelchin, a fine actor who’s disappointing underused here. The cast that Abrams assembled for the first film remains excellent, making these characters their own while retaining essential elements of the previous versions. Directed by Justin Lin from a screenplay by Pegg and Doug Jung.
“That piqued my interest and I made a decision to come back”. Though there are many thrilling heroics to follow, the action feels like a natural byproduct of the story and the dire straits in which the crew finds itself, as opposed to being shoehorned in to appeal to a wider audience.
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Star Trek Beyond is a summer movie that you can kick back and enjoy and get swept along in the story and by the characters.
