[Movie Review] Star Trek Beyond

image source: Trekmovie.com

Summary: A surprise attack in outer space forces the Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world. The assault came from Krall (Idris Elba), a lizard-like dictator who derives his energy by sucking the life out of his victims. Krall needs an ancient and valuable artifact that's aboard the badly damaged starship. Left stranded in a rugged wilderness, Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew must now battle a deadly alien race while trying to find a way off their hostile planet.

Please note: This review does contain Spoilers, read at your own risk.

Star Trek Beyond, perhaps the least advertised movie for me this summer (right behind X-men Apocalypse at least), is fantastic. Featuring familiar faces and new ones, Star Trek Beyond is perhaps my new favorite Star Trek movie in the rebooted series. There's so much sass from Leonard 'Bones' McCoy and everyone's favorite Vulcan Spock, Chekov gets much more screen time, and there's several very prominent ladies who hold key roles in helping save the day. We even get a glimpse of some of the crew's life off the Enterprise including Sulu's husband and daughter, references to Kirk's mother, and even mentions to the Late Leonard Nimoy.

Early on in the movie, the pace is a bit fast, trying to cram what the crew has been doing for the past 3 years since Star Trek Into Darkness. Various diplomatic missions, few stops on Federation star bases, everyone feels a bit lost and disconnected from society. Kirk is struggling also with the fact he's reached the age that his father died at and what it means to simply be himself instead of struggling to live up to his father's image. Spock is also struggling due to the in movie scene recognizing and honoring the death of Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock actor who died in 2014. Both of these main characters are struggling with the thought of leaving the Enterprise, Kirk wanting to take an assistant admiral position on the newest star-base, the Yorktown, and Spock to return to New Vulcan to continue his predecessor's work.

Things predictably run amok however when an escape-pod comes barreling towards the Space Station. Inside is a female who claims her crew was a research crew that was attacked and she only managed to escape before the ship was crashed onto a planet behind a nebula that has so much interference that it's impossible to communicate through it. She pleads for a rescue mission to be sent, and Kirk volunteers the Enterprise, noting that it has the best Star Fleet can offer and could make it through the nebula unscathed. More chaos ensues when the ship is attacked above the planet and the crew is forced to jettison off in emergency pods. Uhura sacrifices herself to help separate the saucer from the destroyed main body of the ship in hopes of saving the crew still on it but ultimately ends up a captive of Krall too. 

Of the main cast, Chekov and Kirk land near each other, Bones and Spock (who during the fight scene on the Enterprise took an escape pod which was attacked by an alien ship and subsequently took that over) land together, and Scotty finds himself having to scramble for dear life when his pod lands on the very edge of a cliff face. As one my guess, the remaining crew begin searching for their comrades, ending up with Scotty meeting Jaylah - an alien scavenger who's been stranded on the planet for a long while. Eventually all parties meet up, and realize Jaylah's home is really a missing star-ship named the USS Franklin. 

A rescue mission is enacted, plots discovered, and the Franklin is repaired enough to get back into space. Spock and Bones end up taking over another alien ship to figure out if the ships are talking to each other via transmissions so they attack in a pattern. Once discovered, the crew saves the day with the Beastie Boys song Sabotage and some well placed missiles. Krall, who it's revealed towards the end to be the former captain of the Franklin, attempts to use the ancient alien weapon that he's been searching for to destroy all life on the Yorktown. Ultimately he's stopped and ejected outside of the star base where he's destroyed while Kirk is saved by Spock and Bones.

In the end, Kirk turns down the position of Assistant Admiral and Spock - upon finding a picture of the original crew among the original Spock's possessions - decides to remain with the crew as well. The crew ends up with a new ship, also named the USS Enterprise, ends the movie with heading back out on their mission. 

I have to say this movie was fantastic, both plot and music worked well together, the additions of lines, lgbtqa representation, and new characters were fantastic. The tributes to the former actors and Anton both in the movie and the end credits were wonderful. Some of the plot was a bit fast moving and the fight scenes tend to have a lot of the camera jerking around so be careful with that. Over all, I'm looking forward to this movie's release onto blu-ray and dvd already so I can add it into my collections at home and at work.