Friday, August 5, 2016

Movie review - Star Trek Beyond - written by Daniel Kilgallon



(PG-13)
Run Time: 120 min

Star Trek Beyond is the thirteenth film adaption of the popular science fiction franchise and follows 2009s Star Trek and 2013s Into Darkness as the third installment of the reboot series. Since J.J. Abrams was focused on directing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, his role was diminished to a producer this time around, with Justin Lin taking the reigns as director. 

Lin is most well-known for directing the fourth, fifth and sixth movies in the Fast and Furious series, all of which I find to be entertaining action flicks. That being said, I was a bit concerned about this transition to science fiction when it was announced that he would direct this new Star Trek film. I am not a “Trekkie” by any means, as the two latest reboots are all that I have seen from the beloved series. However, those are two of my favorite sci-fi films of the past decade or so and I was looking forward to seeing this next installment.

At the start of the film, Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise are now three years into the five year exploration mission that they began at the end of Into Darkness. Early on, the iconic ship is attacked and nearly destroyed by a wave of aliens, causing the entire crew to be separated and stranded on an unknown planet. They soon find themselves pitted against Krall (Idris Elba), a mysterious new enemy who has been working on acquiring an ancient weapon with the intent of unleashing its power. 

Overall, I had a really good time watching this movie. It was great to see the whole cast return yet again, alongside some new faces. The characters have really made these movies for me at least, and all of the actors and actresses continue to deliver impressive performances. Unfortunately, this will be the last time we get to see Anton Yelchin portray Chekov, as the young actor tragically passed away in a car accident just over a month ago. However, I feel confident in saying that this new film truly did a great job of honoring him as well as the late Leonard Nimoy by building upon the success of the first two reboot movies. Personally, I prefer the Abrams-directed films, but Star Trek Beyond is still a blast of a summer sci-fi movie that shouldn’t be missed.

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