Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Star Trek Beyond is the 3rd installment in the Star Trek reboot series. The first was Star Trek (2009), which was then followed by Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). The first 2 were overwhelming successes and Star Trek Beyond is hoping to follow in their footsteps...
The film follows the original Star Trek themes created by Gene Roddenberry and is the 13th film in the Star Trek franchise.
Plot:
The film starts out with the Enterprise and crew returning to a starfleet base after a 3 year mission. Most of the crew are tired out and are looking for a break in what has become a monotonousness life. The return to base is just what the doctor ordered. Until there is an urgent distress call that requires immediate assistance. Being that the Enterprise is the most advanced and well equipped ship for the job, they are assigned immediately.
What starts out as a routine rescue mission quickly turns into something much worse as their ship is attacked as they approached for the rescue. It turns out the entire rescue was a setup and the Enterprise the victim of an ambush.
With the crew mostly unprepared for such an attack, the ship is quickly dismantled and the few surviving crew members eject to the nearby planet. Once on the nearby planet the remaining survivors band together and formulate a plan on how to best respond to their attackers. Luckily for them they are helped by on alien on the planet who just so happens to be living in an old star fleet ship (The Franklin) that they presumed had crashed landed there hundreds of years prior.
With the combined help of the crew and their new found friend they are able to piece together what exactly the attackers are after and get the old star fleet ship up and running again. Once that happens they quickly figure out how to dismantle their attackers and go about saving the star fleet base, which is where the attackers are heading.
The attackers are lead by Krall. It turns out that Krall is actually an ex-star fleet soldier who was disgruntled over how things turned out when he went from soldier to explorer. He believed that star fleet intentionally abandoned him when he was sucked into a worm hole while piloting The Franklin and left for dead on the planet he was stranded on. He vowed he would get his revenge on star fleet for what they did to him.
Once Captain Kirk and crew learn exactly who Krall is and where is anger is directed they realize they only have limited time to save their star fleet base before Krall uses his super weapon on them. Powering up the super weapon was his reason for attacking the Enterprise in the first place as they had the missing piece that he needed in order to make his weapon operational.
All of this happens on Captain Kirk's birthday by the way...
I will leave my description of the plot there so if any of you would like to know how this story concludes, you will just have to see the film :)
Success?
The film has done very well financially. With a budget of $185 million, the film has grossed more than $345 million to date. That is not quite on par with the first film in the reboot but still that is very good for a squeal. It has an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and scored a 7/10 on IMDB. Both of those numbers are solid numbers respectively.
My Review:
If you have seen the second film in the reboot series(Star Trek Into Darkness), I would say that this film has many similarities. I personally thought the first film in the reboot was outstanding, while these next two have just been average. At times the plot and commentary are predictable. There isn't really anything new or unexpected, even though they tried to change up the story line quite a bit in this one(former employee goes rogue).
That being said, the special effects are outstanding though, and the cast plays perfectly off of one another. Chris Pine is one of my favorite actors in general and is very believable as the young, brash, Captain Kirk. Spock is also played perfectly by Zachary Quinto.
There is expected to be a 4th film in the franchise that will bring back most of the starring cast. There have also been rumors that Chris Hemsworth will also be back to play Kirk's father... the role he comprised at the beginning of the 1st film in the reboot.
Overall I would rate this film as a 7.5/10. It is definitely worth watching but I am glad I did not spend money to go see it at the theater. A redbox rental with some popcorn on the couch is the perfect way to enjoy this film!
Live well my friends!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Beyond
Image Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/mediaindex?page=4&ref_=ttmi_mi_sm
Follow: @jrcornel
Resteemed
Thank you!
I'm right there with you on how the first one was outstanding.
The predictability of a movie always disappoints me as this one did. Overall I did enjoy watching it as an old school diehard fan of Star Trek with today's special effects added in but certainly not worthy of entering my DVD collection.
A comparative for me was the tone and emotion I felt from the first few minutes of the first reboot vs. this one, a huge difference..
Thank you for the resteem btw! :)
Yep I agree... this movie was just "ok". I'm hoping the 4th shows me something new and different but it will be tough...
Chris Hemsworth's five minutes in the first movie was the best sequence, IMO. In fact, I thought it was the best intro to any movie, ever.
Love the franchise, and enjoyed this movie. But it was only "good". :)
Did you see the blurb at the end? Hemsworth is returning in the next movie ;)
Yep, that's what prompted my comment. I don't want to take anything away from the others, because I think they're doing a great job. And Hemsworth just did great for five minutes. :) But the writing and directing for that sequence was awesome, as was the message and theme. It was a short story in its own right
Yes it was. It was a movie within a movie ;)
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I feel ashamed to admit I'm a Star Trek fan but still haven't seen this movie. It's been on my To Watch list for a while, but I always end up watching other movies first and putting this one off. It sounds cool from your review; I'm gonna have to bump it up a bit in the priority queue!
Yea, I think it is worth watching... did you see the previous two in the reboot?
I did. I try to catch every Star Trek movie that comes along. The originals were great and so far I think the reboots have more or less lived up to expectations. Although it was a bit weird to see the Vulcan home world destroyed, that was a somewhat drastic plot twist.