Review: Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek Beyond proves an entertaining if slight third entry into the long-running and hugely profitable franchise. While the gang's all there in front of the camera, a changing of the guard has occurred behind it. Screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman are missing in action with Simon Pegg, who also plays Scotty, penning the script along with Doug Jung. Director J.J. Abrams, still on board as producer, has ceded the reins to Justin Lin, who directed the four best installments of the immensely popular Fast and the Furious franchise.
On the surface, the alterations appear for the better. Pegg, being a Trekkie of the highest order, crams callbacks, throwbacks, and references to all existing elements of the Trekkie-verse that will tickle both the fanboys and movie buffs. Lin has a keen eye for thrilling set pieces in which the limits of gravity and elasticity of physical space are tested time and time again, and for having a motley crew coalesce into a community powered by the individuals' respective strengths. Yet they don't mesh quite as smoothly as one would think - there's a disconnect that inhabits the entire movie. It doesn't necessarily prevent one from enjoying the action or the comedy or the consistently appealing cast, but it does dampen the overall experience.
The crew's latest mission may be to rescue a crew stranded on a planet in uncharted space where their communications will be disabled, but it's a mere excuse to loosely structure the film as a remarriage comedy - its central couple verging on separation only to be bonded once again via their latest trials and tribulations. After 966 days in space, Kirk (Chris Pine) is staving off boredom ("If the universe is endless, then are we not striving for something forever out of reach?" he notes in his log) and pondering a job change to Vice Admiral. Spock (Zachary Quinto), dealing with the latest break in his relationship with Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and badly shaken by the news of Spock Prime's death, considers leaving the Starfleet. Both decide to withhold revealing their imminent departures to the other until after they accomplish the rescue mission.
The routine mission is complicated by an attack engineered by Krall (Idris Elba), an alien warlord who dispatches his mechanical swarm of ships to cripple the Enterprise in order to steal an artifact in Kirk's possession. Lin delights in staging the frenzied chaos of bodies flying, slipping, sliding, and scrambling amidst the debris and destruction. Scale and proportion stand on shifting sands - the Enterprise dwarfed by the Yorktown space station, which circles around and folds over itself like something out of Inception's dreamscape; a space ship in freefall, resembling nothing so much as a drop of rain against a jagged mountainside; even the looming species that open the film, wittily revealed to be the size of gremlins.
In terms of narrative, this allows Pegg and Jung the opportunity to separate the core team as the Enterprise is evacuated and the crew board the escape pods, which sends them scattering all over the dangerous and rocky terrain of Altamid, Krall's home base. The consequent pairings are mostly a study in contrasts: the slyly quiet charms of Chekhov (the late Anton Yelchin) against the reckless swagger of Kirk; the nerdishly antic Scotty versus the physically superior but equally mentally resourceful Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), the white-skinned, stripe-faced alien with a talent for crafting holographic camouflage; and, most winningly, the literal-minded Spock and the cantankerous Bones (Karl Urban), two sides of the same antipathetic coin.
Bones may not have the most tactful of bedside manners, but his de facto role as (marriage) counselor to both Kirk and Spock is arguably the most pivotal of all. Of the supporting players, Urban is truly showcased here, his exasperations with those who surround him and the circumstances that surface increasingly comical. He also delivers arguably two of the best lines in the film: "You gave your girlfriend radioactive jewelry? You gave your girlfriend a tracking device," he remarks to Spock, who has revealed Uhura's necklace contains an element they can use to track her whereabouts after she, Sulu (John Cho), and other crew members have been imprisoned by Krall.
Unfortunately, that care and generosity don't extend to Sulu, who feels more peripheral than ever. He's confirmed to be homosexual but it's more a cheap plot device - his partner and daughter are glimpsed briefly, then shown again during the third act when the Yorktown space station on which they reside is menaced by Krall. It's meant to further engage audience sympathy but because it's so tacked on, his family is just another set of faces in the crowd. Those broad strokes extend to Krall and Jaylah. One gets the distinct sense that Elba and Boutella were hired more for their personas than to provide any real depth of characterisation. If Boutella, so striking as the blade-legged Gazelle in Kingsman: The Secret Service, fares better, it's because Jaylah is clearly being positioned to be part of the Starfleet in future installments of the franchise. Unfortunately for Elba, neither Lin nor Pegg and Jung strive to make Krall more than a run-of-the-mill villain and the actor, hidden beneath layers of makeup and prosthetics, is woefully wasted though he does his best to render Krall a physically intimidating presence.
For all its faults, Star Trek Beyond is a nonetheless fun confection, proffering a parade of distractions for pure escapist entertainment. Sometimes it's enough to get the job done.
Star Trek Beyond
Directed by: Justin Lin
Written by: Simon Pegg, Doug Jung; based on characters created by Gene Roddenberry
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Idris Elba, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Sofia Boutella, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Danny Pudi, Greg Grunberg, Joe Taslim, Lydia Wilson
