Star Trek Beyond BurtonReview: Oh My Captain, My Captain
Space, the final frontier. We’ve followed the misadventures
of various crews of various ships of the United Federation for 50 years now. And
with this huge mile stone for the franchise comes a big explosive movie to celebrate
legacy of the franchise, and to continue its voyage into even more perilous
situations and mysterious lands.
The story of Star Trek Beyond takes place some years into the
Star Ship Enterprises’ 5 year voyage through the unknown vastness of space. With
such a long journey Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), is left feeling lost and
wondering if what he is doing is the right fit for him, or if a change is
needed. But before he can ponder on about his midlife crisis the Enterprise is
attacked, leaving Kirk and the rest of his colourful crew stranded on a unknown
world, chased by the villainous Krall (Idris Elba), who’s one goal in life, it
just so happens, is to destroy the United Federation. So I guess it’s a lucky
thing that the crew of the Enterprise is here to stop him.
While the story is a basic one, and not the big fandom
shaking experience that many fans may have expected, this being the 50th
anniversary of the franchise and franchises such as Doctor Who getting a mind
blowing film that changed the franchise going forward while respecting and celebrating
its long lineage, this story is a simple construct that allows you to simply
just have great fun with some of your favourite sci-fi characters; feeling more
like just another episode than a grand finale or new beginning. However when a
movie has me smiling for the majority of its runtime, how can that be a bad
thing.
While the story wasn’t an exciting addition to the chronicles
of Star Trek, the work done here with the majority of the characters was where
the real celebration of this franchise can be seen. All the returning cast fit
excellently back into their roles. Chris Pine as Captain Kirk makes this brave
and charismatic hero a lot more relatable and vulnerable as we explore his confusion
in where his life is going and whether he is on the right track, while still keeping
up funny and heroic side of Kirk that surfaces when in the heat of danger as he
relishes the adrenaline and excitement, just as you do from your seat, brining
you not only into the film more but also into the mind-set of the character. Another
returning role that was greatly weaved into the story was Anton Yelchin as
Chekov. After Anton’s tragic passing, I was scared that this film wouldn’t do
the actor the justice he deserved as Chekov has never been more than a deeply
minor character in this set of movies so far. However in Star Trek Beyond
Yelchin is given not only given a lot more material than in earlier films, but also
great material. Every scene he was in he gave a youthful excitement to that
helped keep the fun tone this film was going for and kept me smiling the whole
way through.
Also, out of the new cast there were also some brilliant
performances and characters added to the history of Star Trek. Sofia Boutella
(from Kingsman) as the alien ally Jaylah was a fresh and awesome character from
the moment she stepped on screen. A badass with a staff and budding engineer
she also had a lot more depth to her than I thought she would get. Not just being
the strong female archetype that shows up in a lot of movies, again her
vulnerabilities were showcased and made the character a lot more likeable and relatable,
while not sacrificing the butt-kicking action hero side of her that was more
than well shown. Also new to the cast was Idris Elba as Krall. While his
motivations and origins are a little contrived and if you think too hard about
them don’t make too much in the way of sense; the design of the character, the
way he moved, spoke, and his presence while on screen also felt fresh for the
genre and wholly engrossing. I was fascinated by this characters mystery, and
while when I found out the answer to my questions I was a bit disappointed, I was
still captivated by the cool design and thought put into a villain that could
have just been another boring megalomaniac.
(Image sourced from http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/star-trek-3%E2%80%B2-everything-we-know-and-dont-know.html/?a=viewall)
However, there were some characters of the Enterprise that
were criminally under used and just down right badly placed in this movie. The
biggest offender of this was the use of Uhura. Zoe Saldana was once again great in the role, but
how the script used her not only didn’t make much sense but also made her
simply into a tool for exposition, depriving her of the great dynamics she has
built so far in this time line and making her a literal fixture of the
background. Another characters arc I was disappointed by was Spock’s. I can’t
quite put my finger on it but something about his progression through the film
just felt like he was going through the motions, never really feeling present
in the movie and more of an afterthought, instead of the centre piece he is to
the franchise.
But, what was always expertly used in this film was the
amazing soundtrack. From the epic original score by Michael Giacchino to the
songs used in the film, each placement of the music heightened every scene, engraining
amazing moments in my mind and helping the goose bumps make a show at least 3
times in this film.
Music can’t solely make a scene incredible however, what also
goes a long way to doing that is astounding visuals and that Star Trek Beyond
has in droves. While the CGI is abit rubbery on some of the alien effects
through the movie; the star ship and incredible vista shots are jaw dropping
and reminded me why I love this genre so much. The cool, slick and clean style
of the Star Trek universe is highlighted immensely in this film and left me
wide eye and amazed at not only the design of these worlds but how
fantastically they have been brought to life. And seeing the Enterprise fly
through a sea of literal explosions will never get old and, in-fact, the star
ship shots, fights and interesting points of views incorporated by director
Justin Lin, were the highlights of the film.
Actually the 1st time Star Trek director, Justin
Lin, brought a very fresh and innovative style to the film. The use of the
camera and giving it a very fluid and interesting movement through the movie
was not only impressive but kept the film feeling fresh and spiced up scenes
that in other directors hands could have been just a by the numbers set of
camera shots.
While the use of camera in this film is to be commended, in
some of the early action scenes it did work to the films detriment. With the
quick camera switches and a bit too tight close ups on actors while in the heat
of battle, made keeping track of these frantic and exciting sequences a little
too hard to follow, leaving me unsatisfied by on paper should have been an epic
moment in the film. Thankfully by the half way point the shots seem to have
more of a handle on capturing the action sequences and are able to show just
how awesome the battles and set pieces in this film are.
So overall, this isn’t a mind blowing anniversary film many
fans may have wanted, but it is a solid fun Sci-Fi time that had me smiling
mostly from start to finish and reminded me on just how cool, epic, and diverse
this genre can be. Simply put, it’s a damn fun time and I would highly recommend
rebounding the United Federations most esteemed Star Ship, the USS Enterprise.
Star Trek Beyond = 7.5/10
Why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews, where I
upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUfnyezvQsVsDgN3TGRh1Q
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.
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