Not truly original, Star Trek Beyond is fun and faithful to the tradition.
Star Trek Beyond
Grade: B
Director: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 6)
Screenplay: Simon Pegg (The World’s End), Doug Jung (Confidence)
Cast: Chris Pine (The Finest Hours), Zachary Quinto (Margin Call)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hrs
by John DeSando
“We will find hope in the impossible.” Spock (Zachary Qinto)
Decades after the TV show, Star Trek is doing the impossible: surviving very well, thank you. Spock’s words, too, reflect the youthful spirit of the spaceship Enterprise’s mission to seek out newer worlds, etc., with the élan characteristic of the journey and its Captain, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine).
By now even the least-enthusiastic Star-Trek fan knows how the story will be told and who the players will be: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov, et al. Who they don’t know is the usual villain like Ricardo Montalban’s Khan, so the reliably entertaining Star Trek Beyond introduces us to Idris Alba’s Krell, a former soldier turned assassin, not just your garden variety killer but a maniac who has the means to destroy all beings in the universe.
That setup is nectar to Captain Kirk and his faithful science companion, Commander Spock. You know how it will turn out, right down to the epic fight between the two alpha males. In fact, this installment feels like a TV episode with the usual stranding on an obscure planet and fight with a deranged dictator.
Of more interest is the growing emotionalism of Spock (he’s dating Lieutenant Uhura, played by Zoe Saldana). Star Trek has always been superior to Star Wars in the character development department, notwithstanding the brilliant portrayal of Han Solo by way of Indiana Jones. Spock’s affection for Uhura is both an interesting addition to Spock’s character arc but off-putting as I find it compromising the stalwart, focused science officer of the past.
However, that’s the charm of the Star Trek canon, enough consistency peppered with change to keep it comforting and exciting. Not to forget a heavy dose of wisecracking humor, more here than in any other iteration. The fellowship the sense of joy offers is amusing and bound to tie me in closer to the franchise than ever before.
As too frequently happens in these cosmic adventures, the denouement has a battle over an obliterating weapon. The death-star-like weapon Krell threatens to use is not so great; his bee-like warriors, however, are. They swarm and they destroy, bringing up summers of my fiercely swatting bugs and mosquitoes. Like the Enterprise staff, I usually find the antidote, in my case the zapping lantern.
Star Trek Beyond has the usual gorgeous music and fascinating characters; what it doesn’t have is enough difference from itself to warrant a claim for genius. That’s reserved for the villains and the Captain.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com