Star Trek Beyond review: Convenient and safe, but not for true fans

Star Trek Beyond is not a memorable movie and genuine Star Trek fans will loathe it with all their hearts. It is, however, filled to the brim with spectacular visuals and non-stop action and will easily fall into the same league as the more recent Avengers movies. If you liked the Avengers, you’ll love Star Trek Beyond. The third movie in the rebooted Star Trek story has been directed by Justin Lin, of Fast and Furious fame. Sadly, he also transforms a beloved franchise about exploration and self-discovery into something not unlike a mindless super-hero flick. Star Trek has always been about the journey, of exploration, of bridging cultural barriers and most importantly, self-discovery. The movie starts off promisingly enough, with Kirk talking about the years spent traveling through space, the diplomatic and cultural hurdles he’s had to overcome and Lin even manages to put a human face on the rest of the crew. I’d rather not spoil what little plot there is, so I’m keeping the story elements intentionally vague. The start of the movie introduces plot points with great potential, especially as far as Kirk and Spock are concerned. I expected them to form the foundation of the movie and the basis for every action taken by the two pivotal characters in the series, but none of this comes to pass. Many more such plot points develop through the course of the two hour film but nothing ever pans out and everything is dropped in favor of jaw-dropping visuals and mindless action. I also felt that the plot was very lazy. Everything was, for lack of a better word, convenient. Solutions appear precisely when they’re needed. Again, without spoiling too much, in one sequence, Kirk stumbles across a 100 year old Starship that’s in need of major repair, repair that it’s previous owners couldn’t accomplish. Scotty pops over and has the ship up and running in no time and saves the day. To put it another way, imagine you’re in the dessert and need water. If you’re in Star Trek Beyond, you’d find a well before you really started suffering. Need an umbrella? One will magically fall out of the sky. Need transport? You’ll find a fully functional Land Rover buried in the sand. Everything was just too convenient. But these are just the ramblings of a Star Trek fanboy. If you stop looking at the movie as a true Star Trek film, you’ll find that there’s a lot to like. From a visual and sound-design standpoint, the movie is gorgeous. I got to experience it in one of the best theaters in Mumbai and expensive as the ticket was, the experience was certainly worth it. The set-piece action sequences are massive in scale and visually stunning. For that alone, It’s worth a watch, especially in a good theatre. As the title suggests however, true fans will find a lot to crib about.