Star Trek Beyond – Movie Review

Star Trek Beyond – PG-13
Release Date: Fri 22 Jul 2016

Justin Lin takes over directing the rebooted Star Trek series with the latest entry, Star Trek Beyond. Upon reaching new depths in space exploration, the Enterprise encounters a surprising threat that puts the future of the Federation and the lives of the crew at risk.

Finally free of having to reintroduce characters and free of the unnecessary detour that Into Darkness became, Star Trek Beyond feels closer to a more standard, self-contained episode of the television series. Lin’s direction keeps the pace fast in both action and exposition scenes with a great deal of spot-on humor. The Spock and McCoy dynamic is on point. The script also finds great use for the main cast by separating them into tiny groups, each discovering pieces of the puzzle as they try to survive.

While Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk is still the star, the rest of the cast feel better utilized than in previous films. It’s not quite an ensemble film, but once you get beyond Kirk, Spock and McCoy, the rest of the crew seems to have fairly even screen time and importance to the plot.

Benedict Cumberbatch was fun for a while in Into Darkness, but he pulled a lot of attention away from the stellar cast as they did the Star Trek version of Silence of the Lambs. Star Trek Beyond finally feels like we’re getting a window into the lives of the Enterprise Crew, rather than watching them take baby steps toward becoming the characters from the original show.

Reviewed and recommended in IMAX 3D – some excellent space battles and beautiful scenes.

Matthew, Cal and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: