Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Director: Justin Lin

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldanha, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

‘Star Trek Beyond’ is the third film in the Kelvin Timeline, after ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’. If you’ve been following my blog, you would have noticed I had issues with Chris Pine being cast as Captain Kirk, and that I found the character incompetent and immature. Fortunately, the character – and Chris Pine – is much better in ‘Star Trek Beyond’.

The film’s first 30 minutes are excellent!! There’s so much happening during the first act that it can easily be mistaken for the climax. It was awesome! Sadly, though, the film then treads along on all too familiar ground, and I didn’t find it all that interesting due to the cliched premise.

The first two films featured more realistic characters than ‘Star Trek Beyond’. With so many strange creatures and alien species, it is almost starting to look more like a ‘Star Wars’ film. As for the human cast, I still really enjoy Zachary Quinto as Spock, and the chemistry between Spock and Kirk was better here than the previous films.

In ‘Star Trek Beyond’ their mission is to rescue a crew stranded on a planet in unchartered space. Off course, there are a few twists and surprises, but I’m just not sure I’m going to remember the movie. The antagonist is Krall, who didn’t really make an impression on me. There are also constant attempts at humor, which at times felt forced and out of place – merely for the sake of adding comic relief.

My favourite film in this series by far, was ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’. I must say, though, the visuals in ‘Star Trek Beyond’ is absolutely AMAZING!! I mean, it is stunning!! The make-up is also top-notch.

‘Star Trek Beyond’ earned $343.5 million on a $185 million budget. Performance wise it was also the weakest of the Kelvin Timeline series. The film received 32 award nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling.

Would I watch it again? I don’t think so.