Star Trek Beyond
[Warning: contains spoilers]
This movie is set about three years after the last one, and Kirk is getting bored of all the exploration and peace missions. Luckily for Kirk this is a movie, so we know something big is going to happen.
Kirk is also upset because his birthday is coming up, which makes him think of his father and what it means to live up to that legacy as well as make his own. Uhura and Spock are going through a rough breakup, so our main characters aren't in the best place emotionally. When they stop in Yorktown, Kirk asks to be promoted to a council job on base and to have Spock take his place as captain.
Finally, our conflict begins. The Federation receives a distress signal from an alien whose ship has apparently malfunctioned, stranding her crew on the far side of the nebula, and the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission. As they approach the planet, the crew is attacked by a small army of ships, the Enterprise is destroyed and the crew is scattered. Scotty meets Jaylah, who has been hiding out on the planet. She agrees to help him if he uses his engineering skills to help her fix something. Spock gets injured, but is luckily stranded with Bones. He also admits at this point that he wants to leave the Enterprise to continue the work that his older self was doing before his passing. The alien who called for the rescue, Kalara, is with Kirk and Chekov; she soon admits to them that she led them into a trap that was organized by Krall (the villain). They want to retrieve the Abronath, an item that Kirk had attempted to give as a peace offering to some aliens who were rather offended by the object. The rest of the crew is captured by Krall. As the crew work together to find one another and defeat Krall, the prisoners discover that the Abronath is a weapon which Krall wishes to use against the Federation, specifically on Yorktown. They manage to defeat everyone but Krall, but then they discover old footage revealing that Krall was once the captain of the Franklin, a man who turned on the Federation for leaving his crew stranded. Kirk and Krall face off in a final struggle, and of course Kirk just barely escapes. After living through another one of their great adventures, the crew gets together to celebrate Kirk's birthday, and everyone realizes that they preferred things as they were and all is reconciled; all the relationships are fixed and no one leaves the crew.
I forgot going into this movie that Chekov would still be a part of it, so I admit that I cried occasionally while watching it, although the movie itself is not that sad. It is actually a much lighter movie, in every sense, than the previous two. The scenes were so colourful and bright, there was a lot of humor and optimism. But it was still full of adventure. And I'm happy to say that there was no lack of character development in spite of the changes in ambience and whatnot. In fact, I think that more minor characters like Sulu, Bones, Scotty and Chekov got more screen time than they have in a while, perhaps ever. I was quite happy with this movie, although I don't know that I like it quite as much as the first. I have a thing for complex plots and good acting. My favourite scene in the first film is the one where Spock chokes Kirk: it's a great in-depth exploration of their characters, it is a defining moment in their relationship, and you can see an actual handprint on Chris Pine's neck! Star Trek Beyond does, however, continue to delve into Kirk and Spock's identities and their similarities (both trying to live up to someone else's legacy), and there are still unexpected twists and turns in the plot to keep it interesting. Overall, this movie stands out from the rest of the franchise, but it continues to uphold the standard of excellence that fans expect from these sci-fi action flicks.
This movie is set about three years after the last one, and Kirk is getting bored of all the exploration and peace missions. Luckily for Kirk this is a movie, so we know something big is going to happen.
Kirk is also upset because his birthday is coming up, which makes him think of his father and what it means to live up to that legacy as well as make his own. Uhura and Spock are going through a rough breakup, so our main characters aren't in the best place emotionally. When they stop in Yorktown, Kirk asks to be promoted to a council job on base and to have Spock take his place as captain.
Finally, our conflict begins. The Federation receives a distress signal from an alien whose ship has apparently malfunctioned, stranding her crew on the far side of the nebula, and the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission. As they approach the planet, the crew is attacked by a small army of ships, the Enterprise is destroyed and the crew is scattered. Scotty meets Jaylah, who has been hiding out on the planet. She agrees to help him if he uses his engineering skills to help her fix something. Spock gets injured, but is luckily stranded with Bones. He also admits at this point that he wants to leave the Enterprise to continue the work that his older self was doing before his passing. The alien who called for the rescue, Kalara, is with Kirk and Chekov; she soon admits to them that she led them into a trap that was organized by Krall (the villain). They want to retrieve the Abronath, an item that Kirk had attempted to give as a peace offering to some aliens who were rather offended by the object. The rest of the crew is captured by Krall. As the crew work together to find one another and defeat Krall, the prisoners discover that the Abronath is a weapon which Krall wishes to use against the Federation, specifically on Yorktown. They manage to defeat everyone but Krall, but then they discover old footage revealing that Krall was once the captain of the Franklin, a man who turned on the Federation for leaving his crew stranded. Kirk and Krall face off in a final struggle, and of course Kirk just barely escapes. After living through another one of their great adventures, the crew gets together to celebrate Kirk's birthday, and everyone realizes that they preferred things as they were and all is reconciled; all the relationships are fixed and no one leaves the crew.
I forgot going into this movie that Chekov would still be a part of it, so I admit that I cried occasionally while watching it, although the movie itself is not that sad. It is actually a much lighter movie, in every sense, than the previous two. The scenes were so colourful and bright, there was a lot of humor and optimism. But it was still full of adventure. And I'm happy to say that there was no lack of character development in spite of the changes in ambience and whatnot. In fact, I think that more minor characters like Sulu, Bones, Scotty and Chekov got more screen time than they have in a while, perhaps ever. I was quite happy with this movie, although I don't know that I like it quite as much as the first. I have a thing for complex plots and good acting. My favourite scene in the first film is the one where Spock chokes Kirk: it's a great in-depth exploration of their characters, it is a defining moment in their relationship, and you can see an actual handprint on Chris Pine's neck! Star Trek Beyond does, however, continue to delve into Kirk and Spock's identities and their similarities (both trying to live up to someone else's legacy), and there are still unexpected twists and turns in the plot to keep it interesting. Overall, this movie stands out from the rest of the franchise, but it continues to uphold the standard of excellence that fans expect from these sci-fi action flicks.
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