Now three years into their journey into deep space, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is starting to feel disillusioned in his role as captain of the Enterprise. But when a scheduled stop at the Federation port Yorktown is interrupted by an attack from a mysterious swarm of ships, the crew of the Enterprise face off against the monstrous Krall (Idris Elba), and his plan to destroy the entire Federation.
As a big fan of the two previous Star Trek reboot films (although I'm able to acknowledge their faults), I was looking forward to Beyond. I'm not a Star Trek person at all (Star Wars is what I connected with as a child), but I do understand why so many people love it. The biggest obstacle between Trekkies and JJ Abrams' films seemed to be that they were simply so different from what fans associated with Star Trek. As films, I really enjoyed them, but I was still curious to see how this cast and modern filmmaking techniques would operate in a more traditional Star Trek film.
This movie definitely feels different from the previous two, in terms of tone, story, and direction. There were some areas where Justin Lin's directorial approach was an improvement over JJ Abrams, and other areas where it definitely wasn't. My biggest problem was with how some of the movie was filmed, because a majority of the action was either extremely shaky, very close-up in hand-to-hand fights, or both. I know that they were trying to bring some sense of realism to those scenes, but I was having trouble keeping up with what was going on a lot of the time. There are moments where the camera movements are very fluid, so I wonder why things were so "Bourne-ish" all the time.
Despite my dislike of how it was filmed, there's no denying that Justin Lin has a talent for crafting unique and interesting action scenes. He also uses digital camera movements in very creative ways that help to portray a sense of scale that makes everything feel bigger. If anything, I wish he'd just put the camera down sometimes, because huge, sweeping, spinning camera moves do get a bit unimpressive after a while. The effects are top-notch, with the swarm in particular looking incredible in action. But some other effects were distracting, and took away some of the threat that the enemies could have had.
The best element of these films has always been the cast, and they continue to shine here. As an ensemble, they work off of each other perfectly, and one of the best ideas that the screenwriters had was splitting the crew up into unique pairings for a section of the story. The cast do their best work in these scenes, especially Spock and Dr. McCoy, and the crew in general feels much more like a tightly-knit unit. The Enterprise feels much more alive, and even extras who are only seen for a few seconds are given a lot of personality, whether through friendships or relationships. The characters also resemble their original versions much more, with Kirk being the most notably changed character. Kirk is now much more responsible, level-headed, and his desire to protect his crew felt much more natural to his character. He's no longer brash and short-tempered, and it is nice to see Captain Kirk really being Captain Kirk. Spock is now much less emotional; there's no scene of him screaming, crying, and punching the villain in the face; he's much more reserved and calm, which is how Spock should be. The rest of the cast are largely the same as in past films, but still function very well alongside each other. The new character Jaylah, who's had a large focus in the marketing campaign, was fine. Sofia Boutella gives a good performance, and is very competent when it comes to action scenes.
The villain is a disappointment, and an unfortunate waste of Idris Elba's talents. I don't know why, when presented with Idris Elba, the filmmakers thought it was a good idea to just make him grunt and speak really slowly all the time, but Elba was very under-utilized. When he was first introduced, he just seemed to be a brute who wanted to attack the Federation, and we never really learn what his motivations are until almost the very end of the movie. There were some hints throughout, but then the movie just stops to tell us his entire backstory, and I felt it didn't justify what he was doing. His purpose is essentially to show the contrast between the world of Star Trek and the world of the past, as Krall represents everything the Federation is against. Thematically, Krall worked as an idea, but not as much as a character.
The story benefits from not being oriented around the "mystery box" method, and with Simon Pegg as a screenwriter, the characters have many humourous moments. But the story was extremely generic, and I felt like I'd seen everything before. Bad guy wants doomsday device to destroy the world, good guys want to stop him, good guys win. There weren't really any surprises with either the story or the characters; everything played out largely how I expected it to. There was a notable increase of science being used to solve problems, rather than just Kirk and Spock running into a room with phasers blazing. That was a welcome change, and there was never an over-abundance of techno-babble; everything made sense, and was set up well. Michael Giacchino's score was also great, as always.
The homages to the original Star Trek series (and possibly other series) were much more subtle, and the few I was able to catch were very well done. Subtlety in that way was the best route to go, because more overt references can be very distracting. Another positive point was the length of the film, which was perfect for the story they were telling. There was no unnecessary filler, and there was no need for it to be 2 and a half hours long. I also liked the note that the movie ended on; a more hopeful, uplifting, heartwarming note. It was a worthy celebration of 50 years of Star Trek.
I just never found myself engaged in the story. There was never a moment where the movie really clicked and got me invested in what was happening. I cared about the characters, but that's only based on the last two films, and there were only one or two moments where I felt the film really stood out as something unique. For the most part, I was just sitting there waiting to be really on-board with the story that Beyond was telling. Despite my neutral reaction to this movie, I'm still interested in where the series goes next. As of right now, a fourth movie is confirmed, confusingly with Chris Hemsworth returning as George Kirk (maybe they're doing time travel?) I'm not sure if I really love this new direction that the series is going in, but the director and writers seem to have nothing but passion for it, and that is conveyed in Beyond. Passion and love for the material is always a good place to start, and will result in something that Trek fans are sure to enjoy.
The Star Trek world suffered a couple of huge losses with Leonard Nimoy and, more recently, Anton Yelchin, and they really needed a win. If this is the movie that Trek fans want to see, then I'm glad they finally have a film that's in line with the Star Trek that they know. It just didn't work for me in the same way that the past 2 films have, and I walked out of the theatre surprisingly disappointed.
As a big fan of the two previous Star Trek reboot films (although I'm able to acknowledge their faults), I was looking forward to Beyond. I'm not a Star Trek person at all (Star Wars is what I connected with as a child), but I do understand why so many people love it. The biggest obstacle between Trekkies and JJ Abrams' films seemed to be that they were simply so different from what fans associated with Star Trek. As films, I really enjoyed them, but I was still curious to see how this cast and modern filmmaking techniques would operate in a more traditional Star Trek film.
This movie definitely feels different from the previous two, in terms of tone, story, and direction. There were some areas where Justin Lin's directorial approach was an improvement over JJ Abrams, and other areas where it definitely wasn't. My biggest problem was with how some of the movie was filmed, because a majority of the action was either extremely shaky, very close-up in hand-to-hand fights, or both. I know that they were trying to bring some sense of realism to those scenes, but I was having trouble keeping up with what was going on a lot of the time. There are moments where the camera movements are very fluid, so I wonder why things were so "Bourne-ish" all the time.
Despite my dislike of how it was filmed, there's no denying that Justin Lin has a talent for crafting unique and interesting action scenes. He also uses digital camera movements in very creative ways that help to portray a sense of scale that makes everything feel bigger. If anything, I wish he'd just put the camera down sometimes, because huge, sweeping, spinning camera moves do get a bit unimpressive after a while. The effects are top-notch, with the swarm in particular looking incredible in action. But some other effects were distracting, and took away some of the threat that the enemies could have had.
The best element of these films has always been the cast, and they continue to shine here. As an ensemble, they work off of each other perfectly, and one of the best ideas that the screenwriters had was splitting the crew up into unique pairings for a section of the story. The cast do their best work in these scenes, especially Spock and Dr. McCoy, and the crew in general feels much more like a tightly-knit unit. The Enterprise feels much more alive, and even extras who are only seen for a few seconds are given a lot of personality, whether through friendships or relationships. The characters also resemble their original versions much more, with Kirk being the most notably changed character. Kirk is now much more responsible, level-headed, and his desire to protect his crew felt much more natural to his character. He's no longer brash and short-tempered, and it is nice to see Captain Kirk really being Captain Kirk. Spock is now much less emotional; there's no scene of him screaming, crying, and punching the villain in the face; he's much more reserved and calm, which is how Spock should be. The rest of the cast are largely the same as in past films, but still function very well alongside each other. The new character Jaylah, who's had a large focus in the marketing campaign, was fine. Sofia Boutella gives a good performance, and is very competent when it comes to action scenes.
The villain is a disappointment, and an unfortunate waste of Idris Elba's talents. I don't know why, when presented with Idris Elba, the filmmakers thought it was a good idea to just make him grunt and speak really slowly all the time, but Elba was very under-utilized. When he was first introduced, he just seemed to be a brute who wanted to attack the Federation, and we never really learn what his motivations are until almost the very end of the movie. There were some hints throughout, but then the movie just stops to tell us his entire backstory, and I felt it didn't justify what he was doing. His purpose is essentially to show the contrast between the world of Star Trek and the world of the past, as Krall represents everything the Federation is against. Thematically, Krall worked as an idea, but not as much as a character.
The story benefits from not being oriented around the "mystery box" method, and with Simon Pegg as a screenwriter, the characters have many humourous moments. But the story was extremely generic, and I felt like I'd seen everything before. Bad guy wants doomsday device to destroy the world, good guys want to stop him, good guys win. There weren't really any surprises with either the story or the characters; everything played out largely how I expected it to. There was a notable increase of science being used to solve problems, rather than just Kirk and Spock running into a room with phasers blazing. That was a welcome change, and there was never an over-abundance of techno-babble; everything made sense, and was set up well. Michael Giacchino's score was also great, as always.
The homages to the original Star Trek series (and possibly other series) were much more subtle, and the few I was able to catch were very well done. Subtlety in that way was the best route to go, because more overt references can be very distracting. Another positive point was the length of the film, which was perfect for the story they were telling. There was no unnecessary filler, and there was no need for it to be 2 and a half hours long. I also liked the note that the movie ended on; a more hopeful, uplifting, heartwarming note. It was a worthy celebration of 50 years of Star Trek.
I just never found myself engaged in the story. There was never a moment where the movie really clicked and got me invested in what was happening. I cared about the characters, but that's only based on the last two films, and there were only one or two moments where I felt the film really stood out as something unique. For the most part, I was just sitting there waiting to be really on-board with the story that Beyond was telling. Despite my neutral reaction to this movie, I'm still interested in where the series goes next. As of right now, a fourth movie is confirmed, confusingly with Chris Hemsworth returning as George Kirk (maybe they're doing time travel?) I'm not sure if I really love this new direction that the series is going in, but the director and writers seem to have nothing but passion for it, and that is conveyed in Beyond. Passion and love for the material is always a good place to start, and will result in something that Trek fans are sure to enjoy.
The Star Trek world suffered a couple of huge losses with Leonard Nimoy and, more recently, Anton Yelchin, and they really needed a win. If this is the movie that Trek fans want to see, then I'm glad they finally have a film that's in line with the Star Trek that they know. It just didn't work for me in the same way that the past 2 films have, and I walked out of the theatre surprisingly disappointed.
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