MOVIE REVIEW: STAR TREK BEYOND (2016)

From IMDB:

Storyline

The first leg of the USS Enterprise's five year mission takes them into uncharted territory. There the Enterprise is nearly destroyed and strands Kirk and his crew on a remote planet with no means of communication. Kirk must then work with the elements to reunite his crew and get back to Earth. 

70 Metascore From metacritic.com

Reviews 17 user | 67 critic

From Rotten Tomatoes:

MOVIE INFO

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise encounter an alien warrior race when marooned on a distant planet after the destruction of their spaceship in this thrilling sequel directed by Fast & Furious director Justin Lin.

Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi action and violence)

Genre: Action & Adventure , Drama , Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: Justin Lin

Written By: Doug Jung , Simon Pegg

In Theaters: Jul 22, 2016 wide

Runtime: 120 minutes

Studio: Paramount Pictures

TOMATOMETER 90%

Average Rating: 7.1/10 | Reviews Counted: 90

Fresh: 81 | Rotten: 9

Critics Consensus: Star Trek Beyond continues the franchise's post-reboot hot streak with an epic sci-fi adventure that honors the series' sci-fi roots without skimping on the blockbuster action.

WANT TO SEE 99% want to see

User Ratings: 33,112

STAR TREK BEYOND OPENS IN THE US ON THE 22nd OF JULY AND IN MALAYSIA ON THE 21st OF JULY. TO FIND OUT WHEN IT OPENS NEAR YOU CLICK HERE. 

Space the final frontier, also where this spaceship constantly gets destroyed. ©Paramount Pictures

The USS Enterprise gets trashed again and rebuilt again at the end!

So after Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) which I thought was pretty good but made better because of Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Khan comes Star Trek Beyond which takes the intrepid crew of the USS Enterprise even further out into the unknown frontiers of space, exploring new worlds and acting as ambassadors for the United Federation of Planets. And like the opening of the previous installment Kirk (Chris Pine) screws things up.

Here you are thinking you're on a rescue mission but instead you get attacked by a swarm of giant space bees. Oh, wait, that's futurama. ©Paramount Pictures

Anyway, after the screw up the crew return to the Federation's new outpost to resupply but on their way pick up a distress signal which leads them to a ship. They save the ship and it's single occupant an alien named Kalara (Lydia Wilson) and bring her back with them to Yorktown. They figure out what she's talking there and soon after completing the resupply they crew of the Enterprise shoot off to the nebula that Kalara says her crew were left behind. Of course this being the Enterprise it doesn't turn out to be a simple rescue mission. They are ambushed and the Enterprise ends up crashing on the M-class planet below scattering whatever survivors that aren't captured all over the planet's surface. 

Bones finally gets to do something more than just heal people. That's what you want from a real doctor. ©Paramount Pictures

So what follows after that is that Kirk's escape pod manages to land quite near to Chekov's (Anton Yelchin) pod so they team up to search for the others, Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban) hobble their way in search of the others as well after Bones extracts a huge piece of the alien space ship they escaped in out of Spock's side and Scotty, who escaped in what appears to be a torpedo meets a feisty female alien named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) who strikes up a deal with him. Meanwhile, Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) who were captured try to figure out what's going on by wandering around the enemy's hideout after Keenser (Deep Roy) the little alien assistant to Scotty sneezes acid snot on their prison's lock. 

These guys looked like they walked right out of a cool first person shooter. ©Paramount Pictures

The big bad baddie in this Star Trek is named Krall (Idris Elba) who is assisted by Manas (Joe Taslim) and a whole army of cool looking soldiers. Krall has a huge grudge against the Federation and as with anyone with a grudge against the Federation wants to destroy it and kill anyone associated with it.

This is Krall. He's an original baddie not recycled from old Star Trek TV shows and movies. ©Paramount Pictures

So here's what I liked about it.

1. The story. The version that finally makes it to the big screen was written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. The story is tight, funny and action packed.
2. The directing. Directed by Justin Lin who directed several movies in The Fast and The Furious franchise certainly knows his way around an action movie and I'm guessing with a lot of help from Pegg and producer J.J. Abrams managed to give trekkies and non-trekkies a fun and entertaining movie that satisfies without requiring too much knowledge about the franchise.
3. The action. Which starts off with a bang and is paced and peppered quite nicely throughout. 
4. The cast. After two movies they really know how to play off each other. Though I don't know why I'm still not entirely convinced by Urban's portrayal of Bones. 
5. Idris Elba. His Krall is completely believable. It was impossible to recognise Elba. As is Boutella's Jaylah. 
6. The humor. Funny little one liners sprinkled throughout stop this movie from becoming too serious and dark.
7. The music which even for us is from way back and by the folks on the Enterprise considered classics.

Captain James Tiberius Kirk, he assumes that every captain's chair is his. Even when it's in a very, very, very old starship. ©Paramount Pictures

The not so likes.

1. Krall's character isn't given much depth. I would have liked to have learnt more about him and had the story focus a bit more about him.
2. Jaylah's character too could have been given more meat or more screen time or something.
3. There were a few weaknesses here and there in terms of the plot, the tech, sequence of events, etc. but luckily they don't interfere with the story much but I guess that's just me. 

The only time you actually see Idris Elba's face is in this recording which looks like it came from 1990. ©Paramount Pictures

Overall it's a really fun movie to watch and a good follow up to 2013's Into the Darkness, it's a nice way to say goodbye to Anthon Yelchin and Leonard Nimoy both of whom passed away prior to the release of the film. I'm guessing it'll please both fans of the franchise and those who are just casual ones. 

Doesn't it look like Jaylah just revealed to Scotty something extremely nerdy? ©Paramount Pictures

If you've got nothing better to do Star Trek Beyond is well worth watching this weekend. A worthy follow up. Oh and if you heard about that mess about Sulu being gay, it makes absolutely no difference to the character.

Have a look at the latest trailer below.