When J.J. Abrams relinquished directing duties of the rebooted Apple Star Trek series to guide the relaunching of the new Star Wars trilogy, and turned captain duties over to Fast & Furious 7 director Justin Lin, he might have just saved the Star Trek franchise completely. Star Trek Beyond, the 3rd installment, is that rare “sequel” (because we don’t actually know how many more films will include this cast) that bests the middle chapter that came before it and sets a course for at least one more we know of for sure (which is rumored to see the return of Chris Hemsworth as young papa Kirk) and perhaps others into the future.
The bad taste from fans’ mouths with the way Abrams handled Kaaaaaahhnn all but dissipates and Star Trek Beyond gets back to the simple ideas that Trek is built on. Beyond is nothing deep or fancy, but it is Star Trek.
The pacing and run time is perfect, only really laying off the warp drive at the opening for Kirk to ponder his mission and existence in Star Fleet but from the moment the villain Krall (An unrecognizable Idris Elba) boards a doomed Enterprise, Lin hits a furious pace which never really lets up until the credits.
Without divulging much plot, from all appearances we’ve seen this all before. The Enterprise engages an unknown nemesis, the crew must save a civilization or their own planet and yes again, the ship itself is completely obliterated. You have to wonder how many times Star Fleet will keep reissuing a ship that is prone to being destroyed time after time, but in Beyond, the complete and utter destruction of the ship is handled in such a short amount of time that it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before and for once leaves its Captain speechless on how to handle the situation. Kirk is quickly outmatched, because this opponent hasn’t revealed their game to him, at least not yet.
The problem with Star Trek is that it’s always had a certain monotony of different species in far reaches of space with different looking spaceships attempting to match wits with Kirk and his worldly crew-mates. It ultimately always limited what the audience believes could actually exist in the outer reaches of the universe.
The Next Generation was better at expanding on that theme, but Krall’s “Hive” of minions is something we haven’t seen before and you believe that something so devastating might actually exist beyond the outer rims in reality, making the Titanic-like sinking of the ship actually believable in a weird, backwards sort of way. Deep space, without warning, is finally an unforgiving place to the crew of the Enterprise.
Once the marooned crew lands planet side and separates from each other, the film falls into the typical format of showing off each different main characters’ sets of skills getting into and out of situations — but the film never bores, not in the least. Simon Pegg’s Scotty teams up with one of the natives, a scene stealing Jaylah (Played with flirtatious ease by Sofia Boutella, the double bladed amputee villain from Kingsman). Boutella chews every moment she’s on screen and one would think with a tragic hole left in the cast by the death of Anton Yelchin earlier this year (more on that in a minute), she would be a natural to fill that vacancy. Abrams has stated that Yechin’s role of Chekov will not be recast, and appropriately so.
Scenes from the trailer that had fans wincing a bit, the blaring of the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage and Kirk dashing around on a present day motorcycle, are actually used effectively in the plot, especially the use of the “classical” tune, which is the absolute moment of the film that had the audience I saw it with at least cheering.
But it’s the throwback feel to Beyond that Lin, despite all the camera tricks and CGI, seems to get. Elba is in make up and prosthetics that allow him to disappear into his role and the production design work has an “on location” feel. Simple different colored eyes and rubber masks are a welcome change in a current atmosphere of overstated and flat computer effects. The recent deaths of Yelchin, which the film seems to acknowledge, and Nimoy give Beyond its needed emotional grounding and the cast doesn’t have to do much work to sell it, Zachary Quinto in particular.
Their respect for those that made these roles possible for them comes through and the cast knows it. There is still a feeling that the actors, particularly Pine as Kirk, are playing out a caricature of the actor that came before them, but this is also the first of the three films where the rebooted versions of these characters finally settle in and embark on their own fates. This franchise should belong to Lin, for the next film and beyond.
