Before I dive into talking about STAR TREK BEYOND, can I just say how much it warms my heart to see Greg Grunberg have such a great few months. The “Heroes” star and J.J. Abrams good-luck charm (he’s been in lead roles and cameos in such works as “Alias,” “Lost,” SUPER 8, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, and as Snap Wexley in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS) shows up in BEYOND in a couple of scenes as Commodore Finnegan, who attempts to stop the destruction of a Federation space station. It’s not a big part, but seeing this genre staple is indicative of why this film works. It’s inclusive and embraces ideas that STAR TREK fans have loved about the series and movie, without feeling like it’s kowtowing to or over-serving them. The best showrunners or filmmakers give the audience what they need, even if said audience doesn’t know they need it.
In the case of STAR TREK BEYOND, what producer Abrams and new director Justin Lin (maker of four FAST AND THE FURIOUS films) give us is a great episode of the original series in movie form. Abrams and his team were so busy reconfiguring the entire new STAR TREK cinematic world and timelines that they may have forgotten to give us some good, old-fashioned, sci-fi action, with a tinge of philosophy sprinkled throughout. But thanks in large part to a down and dirty screenplay from Simon Pegg (who also returns as Scotty) and Doug Jung, STAR TREK BEYOND finds a way to tackle a universe-threatening enemy while never forgetting to enhance the friendships among the crew members in new and surprisingly moving ways.
After a great, action-packed cold opening, the film begins on what feels like the brink of change. Capt. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine, showing more confidence in the role, if that’s even possible) has grown weary of his journey, questioning whether he’s making a difference and wondering if he should cut his five-year adventure short after only three years, for a desk job as a commodore for Starfleet. The great Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo shows up as Commodore Paris at key moments in the film when Kirk has to make some tough choices in his life that will likely also impact his strong ties with best friend Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto).
Spock has also just been given the news that Ambassador Spock (or Spock Prime, played by the late Leonard Nimoy in the previous two films) has died, leaving the few remaining Vulcans in the universe desperate for leadership as they build a new world for themselves. When Spock is approached to be that new leader, he considers it but wants to talk to Kirk first. On the brink of the two discussing their future plans, they are sent on a mission to an uncharted part of space where apparently a ship is in distress, but it turns out they have been lured there, and are immediately attacked and boarded by particularly nasty forces led by Krall (a heavily masked Idris Elba), whose followers and ships swarm like oversized bees, living in hives and “stinging” the U.S.S. Enterprise full of so many holes, that its saucer goes crashing down onto the surface of a nearby planet.
While many of the crew are captured by Krall, many of the most familiar faces use escape pods to head to the surface, and they must find each other, reunite with the captured crew members, and stop a full-scale invasion by Krall that threatens to use an ancient alien virus to wipe out pretty much anything it contacts. And that’s STAR TREK at its core: an end-of-the-universe scenario, a guy in a rubber mask, plenty of time for banter and adventure, and even an attractive, kickass warrior woman in the form of Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, the razor-legged assassin in KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE), whom Scotty finds living on the planet surface in an old Federation starship that shockingly still functions to some degree.
One of the move enjoyable aspects of STAR TREK BEYOND is the middle of the film when the primary crew members are separated, mostly in pairs, attempting to find each other and Krall’s lair. Kirk and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin, who has a couple of great moments in this film) have to deal with the traitorous person who brought them to this interstellar hell to begin with; Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are part of the captured group but manage to escape. But the best pairing easily belongs to Spock and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), who bicker like an old married couple, but when Spock confesses to Bones his plan to leave the Enterprise, the doctor is stunned and makes a point to say how much Kirk will miss his teammate, when it’s clear McCoy is going to miss the Vulcan just as much, words to the contrary.
I complain a lot about action movies (and other genres, for that matter) not devoting enough (or any) time to character development, in an effort to make us care whether any of these people live or die. As with most of the TREK properties, STAR TREK BEYOND never forgets to do this. We don’t need a lot, but we need something to hold onto. The added emotions many audience members will carry into the film with the passing of Nimoy and Yelchin since STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is only going to make that more necessary. Screenwriters Pegg and Jung have made me remember what I truly love about these characters, and that warm feeling extends to new character Jaylah, who is drawn as technically proficient as well as a helluva fighter.
The pacing of the film is quite exceptional as well. The two-hour running time flew by in a way few movies have for me this summer. Part of the reason is that Elba’s Krall is a villain of Shakespearean proportion; his movements are larger than life and his voice suggests that it almost hurts him to speak. He seems especially well-versed in the ways of the Federation in general and Kirk in particular, a source of mystery that I won’t spoil here. I doubt Krall will get placed in some pantheon of great Trek adversaries, but at least he’s not an embarrassment or some lame callback to a classic series episode.
My biggest problem with STAR TREK BEYOND are in Lin’s handling of the action sequences, which no one is more surprised by than me. He’s a proven quantity as far as car chases and fight scenes go, but there’s something so muddy and frantic about the action here that it’s sometimes tough to tell exactly what’s going on or where people are in relation to each other, which is kind of key for credible action set pieces. Perhaps it’s telling that the action scenes that work are more brightly lit, especially a prolonged battle between Jaylah and an enemy from her past. But a great number of fight scenes are in darker surroundings, and especially in 3-D, this is often problematic.
Of the three recent STAR TREK offerings, BEYOND is easily the most purely entertaining. It doesn’t dig deep as far as the greater meanings of Starfleet and its presiding mission, but Krall’s backstory does take a critical look at how the organization has operated in the past, which coincides with Kirk’s doubts about his role in it. Still, as far as franchise work this summer, this is one of the better ones, and I’m still quite eager to see what both the creative team and the actors have in store moving forward. As we learn in this film from a crashed, old-school starship that has been sitting on a desolate planet for decades, there’s still life in this old jalopy, even at 50 years old.
