Originally published July 25, 2016 on FrontRowCentral.com
JJ Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek series has always fought an uphill battle. Whether it was from the colossal expectations in relaunching a beloved cast of characters or the manufactured secrecy of Into Darkness’ “totally not Wrath of Khan but basically Wrath of Khan” story, JJTrek has had a tough row to hoe. With its latest entry, simply titled Beyond, Star Trek has finally slid into a comfortable groove. Fast & Furious director Justin Lin takes the helm and leads a confident cast and crew on the most purely enjoyable Trek adventure since The Undiscovered Country.
“Things have started to feel a little episodic.” – Captain Kirk
The film picks up midway through the Enterprise’s five-year mission, as James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) dreads his next birthday. He’s officially older than his father, and the thought weighs heavy on him. As Kirk prepares to leave the Enterprise for an admiral position on Starbase Yorktown, his crew receives a distress call from a nearby planet. Investigating the call, the Enterprise is ambushed and destroyed by an alien commander named Krall (Idris Elba). After capturing the crew — among them Lt. Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Sulu (John Cho) — Krall plans to use a weapon hidden onboard the Enterprise to attack and dismantle Starfleet. Stranded all across the planet, Kirk and his officers reunite and team up with a marooned warrior named Jaylah (Kingsman‘s Sofia Boutella) to rescue the crew and stop Krall from destroying Yorktown.
In a clever marketing move, news of a sequel came out just before Beyond opened, preventing any sense of finality from seeping into the film.1 Another Trek TV series is in the works and many (myself included) wondered if this might be the end of the so-called Kelvin timeline. Instead, it’s business as usual on the Enterprise, and this is most certainly not the last we’ll see of this crew. (Excepting the tragic loss of Anton Yelchin, who died in a freak accident mere weeks ago.) Still, though such moments are fleeting, mortality is very much on the characters’ minds. As the film opens, Kirk considers leaving the Enterprise in Spock’s command, while Spock (Zachary Quinto) intends to leave Starfleet all together. The desire to move on is stronger than ever, but the ensuing adventure reaffirms how deeply connected they all are. As Spock comes to realize by the end, the Enterprise isn’t simply a crew. It’s a family.
“There is strength in unity.” – Lt. Uhura
Beyond feels split between two different modes of Star Trek. On the one hand, we have yet another world-threatening disaster plot, keeping very much with the tone of the previous two films. On the other hand, the “stranded on an alien planet” plot feels par for the course for Star Trek. It’s to the credit of co-writers Doug Jung and Simon Pegg that the film manages to mesh these two modes as well as it does. While the threat is enormous, the story they tell with it takes place on a much smaller and more human scale. Krall’s scheme is the most thinly-defined of any recent Trek villain, but his motivation comes from a very human place. He sees in Kirk a younger version of himself, meanwhile Kirk seems a twisted version of the captain he might become.
Scattering the crew to the four winds of an alien planet shakes up the group dynamic in some very exciting ways. As the Enterprise is destroyed, everyone finds themselves paired up, leading to a number of uniquely engaging subplots. Captured by Krall’s army, Uhura and Sulu work to learn the detail’s of their captors’ evil plan; Kirk and Chekov (Yelchin) track down a McGuffin in the wreckage of the Enterprise; McCoy (Karl Urban) is forced to endure ruminations on mortality from a wounded Spock. Scotty (Simon Pegg), meanwhile, is rescued from Krall’s men by Jaylah, and their tentative partnership becomes one of the film’s richest running gags. Jaylah has seen all this happen before, and she’s more than capable of defending both herself and a consummate wiener like Scotty. What could have been a middle act full of boring tablesetting winds up becoming the most lively and energetic section of a film in a constant state of motion.
In that regard, bringing in Justin Lin was exactly the right call for this series. His experience staging races and crashing cars has made him uniquely capable of handling sci-fi’s coolest hot rod. The ships in this film have a tangible weight as they swerve and careen through the cosmos, and when they inevitably smash into one another, boy, do you feel it. The Enterprise is a world unto itself, and watching it snake its way through the massive passages of the Yorktown is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Even beyond the vehicular spectacle, Lin brings a welcome sense of clarity to the film’s many action sequences. He’s just as comfortable staging fistfights and shootouts on top of wonky structures as he is diving starships into rocky canyons.
“There is no relative direction in the vastness of space. There is only yourself.” – Commodore Paris
But for as enormously fun as Beyond often is, it is not above taking a few moments to ponder the infinite. (Then again, what kind of Star Trek would it be if it didn’t?) Kirk and Spock both begin wondering about their place in the universe and what both want to someday leave behind. Time will judge us all, as Kirk points out, acknowledging that noble intentions now may not seem so noble in the pages of history. Krall is living proof of the dangers of losing one’s moral compass, and meeting that face to face becomes a revelation for Kirk. Elsewhere, the film offers a very touching tribute to Leonard Nimoy, as young Spock mourns the death of his elder counterpart. Star Trek isn’t supposed to make us weep, but this film’s heart and mind are so firmly in the right place that its sentimentality creeps up on you.
Star Trek Beyond may not be deep enough to satiate the tastes of all Trek fans, but it delivers everything one could want out of a summer blockbuster. It brings some exceptional action sequences (including perhaps the single greatest music cue of the year), a great sense of humor, and just enough heart to endear even the most skeptical of moviegoers. On the eve of the franchise’s 50th anniversary, Beyond has one eye on its past and the other on its future. Even if you have only a passing familiarity with all things Star Trek (guilty), this film transcends the bounds of its fandom and delivers a space adventure we all can enjoy.
- [Editor’s Note from 2024] LOL. LMAO. ↩︎
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