Star Trek Beyond review: Wholesome summer action entertainment for sci fi fans

The 2009 Star Trek reboot, despite being overshadowed by Avatar in box office numbers was actually a bigger cultural phenomenon and a movie making milestone. Not only did it re-launch a dead franchise into high gear but it also pushed some serious boundaries in visual effects, action and comedy. When the final scene of the film concluded with the protagonists zooming out into outer space you knew you had watched something awesome. 2013’s sequel went into the expected ‘darker’ territory without much of an impact.

So it comes as a nice surprise that Star Trek Beyond brings back most of the fun character moments of the original and ramps up the explosive action. This is the film that the second one should have been. Directed by Justin Lin fresh off of the Fast and Furious series, Beyond feels like wholesome summer action entertainment that you go to the movie theater for.

The story, co written by Star Trek super fan Simon Pegg, picks up a few years after the events of the previous movie. The crew of the Enterprise (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana and Pegg) are now deep into their mission to trawl outer space; they stop over at a gigantic space station and discover a missing space ship which leads the to the uber villain Krall (Idris Elba).

The plot might be painfully familiar to anyone who has watched a sci fi movie before, but it’s the execution that really matters in this film. Lin wastes absolutely no time in any single scene — there’s always a sense of urgency, giving the film a tempo of a flaming truck. Unlike a Michael Bay movie where things explode for the heck of it, the action actually manages to affect you in a good way. The visual effects are predictably incredible and the witty banter between characters smack down in the middle of things going crazy is Star Trek fan service executed to perfection. Most fun is the rocky relationship between Spock and Uhura, which is mined for comedy with Bones hurling some jibes as a running joke.

The real problem in the film, however, is the utter lack of stakes because of the rather lame mission of the villain. It’s about time big Hollywood movies gave their villains something more to do than simply attempt to destroy the world or rule it. Even the previous Star Trek movie, despite having a weak villain gave a solid and relatable reasoning to his actions. Elba’s Krall feels more like a villain of the week, and knowing that heroes would beat him in the end there’s little cause for concern when any of them seem to be in danger. If the filmmakers had bothered to write a more interesting villain this could have been as memorable as the first movie.

Ultimately Star Trek Beyond is a movie you see for the action and adventure, and also the camaraderie between the characters — if you like any of those things you’re in for a fun ride. The only heartbreaking aspect is the final screen appearance of the incredibly talented Anton Yelchin who passed away a few days ago. It’s impossible to watch any of his scenes without a hammer hitting your heart, he deserved to live longer and prosper.