I should start by saying there might be spoilers in this review, but that is under the assumption that something happens in this movie that isn’t totally predictable and hasn’t already been done before.

Star Trek Beyond starts with a joke. It’s not an action moment of much, but a low-quality CGI moment between Kirk and a new race. But I knew what I was getting into when I decided to go see this movie, which is low-quality action. From there, we have a touching moment between Kirk and Bones, a nice moment with Spock, and the film acknowledging the passing of Leonard Nimoy.

Of course, this is supposed to set up the emotional story arc of the film. Instead, it turns into a typical CGI-filled action flick that rotates more from one scene to the next. Watching this movie is like riding a roller coaster for hours! Of course, they have to cut to the Jason Born-inspired shaky camera extreme close-up fight scenes as everything rotates into the same movie tropes we have come to expect from the latest iteration of this franchise. And by that, I mean doing everything that has been done before, just with bigger special effects.

And of course, big surprise, since it’s been a few movies since they last blew up the Enterprise, it’s time to do it again.

The bad guy is the same bad guy we have seen before, bent on destroying worlds or people or whatever. Nothing new to see here, either.

The movie does have a few redeeming qualities, like Karl Urban’s portrayal of Dr. McCoy. The only one of the crew that seems to have any actual acting talent. Well, him and Sofia Boutella as Jaylah. I’m slowly becoming a fan of hers after Kingsman: The Secret Service and this. But Urban’s and Boutella’s performances aren’t enough to make up for a copy-and-paste script co-written by Simon Pegg. He clearly was heavily influenced by the paycheck, the studio, and what the previous Abrams-produced movies have done, and that is just to copy of previous Star Trek movies. It worked before, so we might as well keep doing it, right?

The movie jumps from one unbelievable action scene to the next and expects us to buy into the idea that a 100-year-old spaceship that crashed landed on a planet and was never meant to fly in an atmosphere can suddenly fly again. Yes, just like an airplane built in 1916 can keep up with a modern jetliner.

The movie eventually ends with — big surprise — a fight scene between Kirk and the bad guy, with Kirk winning. There’s your spoiler. Or was the Enterprise blowing up the spoiler? Oh, and the emotional arc set up at the beginning with Kirk and Spock… doesn’t really pay off.

Justin Lin’s directing works for the Fast and Furious franchise because it doesn’t try to be something it’s not. Star Trek used to be something more than it currently is. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, this is not.

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Rating: 0/5

  • Directed by: Justin Lin
  • Written by: Simon Pegg, Doug Jung, and a half a dozen other people
  • Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldañan, and Simon Pegg
  • Runtime: 2hr 2min
  • Rating: PG-13
  • Released:  July 22nd, 2016
  • Budget: $185,000,000

Review by Alex Ryce

Star Trek Beyond Trailer