“Space. The final frontier.” Audiences first heard that statement in 1966 when Star Trek first appeared on television screens. It is now 50 years later.
I remember my first experience with the Star Trek franchise. I was on the iTunes store and saw that they had episodes of the original series available for download. I downloaded three of them: “Operation Annihilate,” “Obsession” and “Spock’s Brain.” I heavily enjoyed them, even “Spock’s Brain,” which admittedly was a pretty dumb episode from a relatively brilliant series.
This year saw the release of “Star Trek: Beyond,” the third installment in the rebooted continuity that began with 2009’s “Star Trek” and the thirteenth film overall.
The plot concerns the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise encountering Krall, a former human turned mutated alien who plans to use an ancient relic called the Abronath to destroy the United Federation of Planets.
This installment is far less reliant on reusing ideas from the television series and previous movies. One thing that is reused is the idea of Captain Kirk’s birthday and his resentment to the idea of getting older, which doesn’t really continue throughout the movie aside from the beginning and ending. This idea was borrowed from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Kirk is also given the opportunity to be promoted in rank from Captain to Vice Admiral, which like the idea of Kirk resenting getting older, is only brought up occasionally.
The action scenes are okay, a little unremarkable but then again Star Trek isn’t really about the action. Star Trek is about exploring the unknown or as they say, “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” It is about thinking, facing new challenges, diplomacy and establishing peace throughout the known universe.
The special effects are very good. Although as expected, there is a ton of computer generated imagery (CGI) used which I’m not a massive fan of. It just doesn’t feel as convincing as practical special effects. However, CGI was used to make a scene where the Enterprise docks at the starbase Yorktown- that scene looked really good and sticks in my memory.
I’m not going to go into too much detail on the casting because as it’s the third movie, the majority of the cast have been in these roles for years. Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg are great in their roles of Spock, Dr. McCoy and Montgomery Scott respectively. Of course there is Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. I’m not sure why but it’s difficult for me to imagine anyone besides William Shatner in the role. Maybe it’s because he played the character for so long, or that I just prefer the original television series over the more recent movies.
Anton Yelchin portrays the character of Chekov in his final film performance. Yelchin died in a horrific accident shortly before the film’s release.
As a Star Trek fan I personally prefer the classic television series and movies to the recent entries. They seemed to be more plot and character driven and less reliant on action and special effects.
Star Trek Beyond is a decent movie but I found it to be a little forgettable. It’s not my favorite of the Star Trek movies, it just feels a little bit like an extended episode of a TV series. It provides some decent acting, special effects and actions sequences, however it just left me wanting something a little more. It should have been something a little more grand and celebratory for Star Trek’s 50th anniversary.
