- I'm pleased to report that Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond marks a step in the right direction for the rebooted Star Trek franchise. It's not a great movie -- or even a very good movie -- but at least the film distances itself from the original series in a way that its predecessors never even bothered to attempt. Instead of needlessly revisiting the Kobayashi-Maru scenario or re-inviting the wrath of Khan, Star Trek Beyond introduces new worlds, new life, and yes, even new civilizations. It seems like an obviously good choice, but it took three films to get here.
- The Star Trek universe's new world is called Altamid, and the Federation first hears about it from a refugee named Kalara (Lydia Wilson) who claims that her ship was stranded there. Technically true, I suppose, but what Kalara fails to mention is that Altamid has been overrun by the violent warlord Krall (Idris Elba), whose swarming fleet of ships almost immediately shreds the Enterprise to bits. Although a few redshirts get blown out into the vacuum of space, the important members of the crew (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin) all survive and mount a resistance with the help of a resourceful stranded alien named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella). There are some other details involving Krall's backstory, but I won't spoil them here except to point out that they aren't worth the price of hiding Idris Elba under ten layers of prosthetics.
- Although Lin's constant camera-whirling may lead to fast and/or furious bouts of nausea, the film is to be commended for spending some time with its characters, especially the impressive new addition Jaylah and the famous trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. None of the latter three actors are quite as watchable as their earlier antecedents, but there are moments in this film when you could almost imagine you were watching an episode of the old series. Those moments are quickly interrupted by excessive battle scenes or the cosmically inappropriate eruption of a Beastie Boys song, but the fact that any quiet moments are there at all already pushes this film to the top of the reboot pile. Who knows? Maybe if they do ten more, we'll actually end up with a great new Star Trek movie.
- Both Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin are briefly memorialized in the closing credits.
