Star Trek Beyond Review

The Best of Both Worlds

(This review contains minor spoilers!)

          Star Trek Beyond is, to put it simply, a blast. This is one of those movies that, from minute 1, grabs your hand and takes you on a whirlwind adventure with loads of action, comedy, character, and heart. If you liked the other two movies from the rebooted Trekverse, you’ll love Beyond.

          Star Trek Beyond feels like the best episode of any of the Trek TV shows ever made into a feature film, and that’s a good thing. It’s self-contained, exciting, each and every crew member gets their moment in the spotlight, and never outstays its welcome. It’s also lacking the more gritty elements and plot holes that caused some trouble for Into Darkness, which is a welcome change.

          Speaking of the crew, we get a lot more of several of them. The movie thankfully sets the Kirk/Spock dynamic in the backseat for the majority of the film, having focused on it plenty in the previous entries. Now, we get to see characters like Bones and Chekov take the spotlight, when they really haven’t before in the reboot movies.

          In terms of the new characters, I loved the new alien warrior Jaylah. She fits right into the chemistry of the crew, but she’s different enough that she stands out. I just wished we could’ve seen more of her.

          As for Idris Elba’s Krall, he’s a good villain, but doesn’t even come close to the bar set by Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan. His master plan and reason for it is fine, but nothing memorable. Still, he’s very threatening and the makeup on him is excellent.

          Strangely, for a movie called Star Trek, very little time is spent trekking through stars. At least half the film is on a planet, but Beyond makes it work. By splitting the crew into different, unusual pairings for some time, we’re able to get lots of development between characters. The relationship between Spock and Bones is one I really hope to see more of in the forthcoming movies.

          All in all, Star Trek Beyond is a complete blast for fans of the series, and I feel that those who wouldn’t know Sulu from Scotty will find a lot to love here too. It’s easily the most fun I’ve had watching a movie this year, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a good time.

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing