– By Cate Marquis –
STAR TREK BEYOND delivers on fan-pleasing banter but story is underwhelming
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
“Star Trek: Beyond” offers fans a nice new adventure, with the same terrific cast as the last two. The new film continues Joss Wheedon’s well-crafted reboot of the Star Trek series with the same high quality but with director Justin Lin at the helm with a script by Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the movie and is best known for the zombie comedy “Shawn of the Dead.”
The same cast returns, with Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Pegg as Scotty, Karl Urban as McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, John Cho as Sulu and the late Anton Yelchin as Chekov (and the end credits include a little remembrance of both Yelchin and Leonard Nimoy, the two cast members lost the past two years). Actually, interactions between the crew members – the kidding and teasing back-and-forth, always a big part of the series appeal, along with its inclusive ideals – are the major appeal of this sequel, as the story holds few surprises. There is plenty of action and chases, with dazzling special effects, although the rotating camera angles and objects whizzing closely by make it hard to tell at times what is going on.
Following a diplomatic mission that did not work out as hoped, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise heads for a large new space depot for resupplying. The space station Yorktown is virtually a city in space, a floating ball encased in transparent dome. While there, both Kirk and Spock contemplate their Star Fleet careers. But when a lone survivor of an attack arrives to request assistance, the Enterprise is dispatched on a rescue mission.
They encounter a far bigger threat than they expect, led by lizard-skinned warlord named Krall (Idris Elba). Stranded on a planet, they meet another castaway Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), and uncover a mystery.
Th gifted Idris Elba was a great choice for the villain but, alas, Elba’s talent is underutilized, as Krall does little more than growl and glower. The plot is a bit too transparent, with its twists easy to spot way ahead and what surprises it has just newly found information. Still the banter between characters is entertaining and the action comes at a fast-pace, with few slow moments. At one point, fans may have wondered if the Borg might be behind this, which would have been a cool convergence of the original Star Trek and Next Generation, but not this time.
Overall, “Star Trek: Beyond” is entertaining enough, and actually an improvement over the last one, but still there is room for improvement in the story line. One of the strengths of the Star Trek series, along with its strong cast of characters, is that it is open-ended, an on-going tale of exploration rather than one of defeating an empire, a story that ends when one side wins. There is still plenty of potential in this series, if the script will give the Star Trek crew a worthy adventure.
© Cate Marquis
