Star Trek: Beyond

Come now, who doesn't love Star Trek?

I mean, I'm sure there's people who don't like Star Trek in the world, and they have a right to their opinions, but seriously. It was the first major Science Fiction property on screens everywhere, big and small, and the fact that it's still chugging away today is astounding. Sure enough, if it weren't for J.J. Abrams's fabulous 2009 reboot, the franchise would be dead in the water after the Enterprise TV series failed and after the last movie, Nemesis, came off more dead than Spock in TWOK, but hey...good going.

That's exactly why I was NOT excited for Star Trek: Beyond.

After J.J. Abrams left the franchise to do Star Wars, I lost some hope. I thought, "Oh god...here we go again." Even further so when it was revealed that former Fast and Furious director Justin Lin was announced to take the helm. And then the trailer dropped and it just all went downhill, and I didn't pay a damn lick of attention to any of it.

Then the movie came around, the reviews came, and everything seemed favorable. Now I was interested...how could Lin woo the directors in a way that Abrams couldn't with Into Darkness (another film I liked but no one else did)? I had to find out...so here's what I found.

First things first as always, the plot. It follows the crew of the Enterprise (what else were you expecting?) as they continue their five year journey, and start to notice a certain droning of their days in space. As they begin to celebrate some time off on a Starfleet Outpost, they are called to a distress signal, and end up wrapped up on an alien planet with no ship and no backup, with a tyrant named Krall (Idris Elba) breathing down their necks for redemption of past mistakes.

So, what was the answer to my question? How did Lin end up pulling it off? By pumping revitalization into it that I didn't even know this timeline needed. While I liked Into Darkness, it was definitely lacking something that made the 2009 movie so good...and I found that it was action. And Beyond is absolutely filled to the brim with it, thankfully. Call it a carry-over from Lin's Fast and the Furious days if you want, but it was definitely welcomed, coupled with a really well-done bit of pacing, making it seem that every scene was better than the last. That I can applaud.

What I cannot applaud, was the villainous army presented before us. I love Idris Elba, he's a very cool and capable actor and when given a properly good role, he can really shine, enough to steal the show from everyone else. Which is probably why I feel so underwhelmed with our villain here. Krall just kind of meddles in the background. He'll show up for a while and then disappear completely while the movie focuses on Kirk and the gang. And the biggest problem is, I don't feel threatened by him. At least with 2009's Nero and Into Darkness's Khan, I felt a shade of darkness and actual evil, with Krall...not so much. Shame.

Star Trek: Beyond is a really great film, it's definitely better than Into Darkness, and a very close second to 2009. But with some better character writing, I could have easily seen this one top some of the best of even the original movies, but for now, it gets a 8.3/10 for what it gave us, and it's something I can definitely live with. I'll be looking for what they do next, that's for sure.