Star Trek: Beyond

This review may contain spoilers!

The Star Trek films are still going incredibly strong. I would give Star Trek: Beyond an 8.5/10.

This film marks new beginnings in a lot of great ways: new frontier, new characters and probably most significant of all, new director. What started as an incredible return to this science fiction series has found it's strongest narrative yet in the form of the exploration of the unknown. Kirk and his crew are faced with a villain who does not believe in peace between cultures and instead desires to create a state of conflict within the universe again. It's a fun story that will keep you engaged throughout with interesting character interactions and brilliant action sequences. The cinematography in this film looks stunning, the change of director certainly hasn't affected the beautiful visuals the Star Trek series has become known for. The special effects are a further testimony to this, probably the best scene of the film is the destruction of the Enterprise for it's visual quality alone. The score for this film is wonderful and really harks back to the original Star Trek TV series; the soundtrack is another gem, with Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' accompanying my personal favourite scene of the film.

Chris Pine, who played Captain James T. Kirk, has always been the perfect casting choice for the protagonist of the Star Trek films; I think the best part about Pine's performance is the care he extends in role to each one of his crew whether they be an extra, minor role or lead. Zachary Quinto, who played Commander Spock, really has the neutral rationale-driven Vulcan persona down; in this film Quinto has the difficult position of conveying the loss felt by his character (as well as countless fans) at the death of Leonard Nimoy and his onscreen character. Simon Pegg, who played Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, is as quirky and fun as he always is; I like how proactive Pegg is in this film and the friendship between his role and Boutella's. John Cho, who played Sulu, really does give of a strong 'action hero' vibe in this film; Cho presents an incredibly resilient and badass Sulu for this film. Idris Elba, who played Krall, was a role that I wasn't too sure about until they pulled off a surprising plot twist in this film that reveals he's a mutated human with xenophobic militant motivations; it's this startling reveal that creates an interesting contrast between Pine's Federation captain and Elba's ex-Federation captain. Sofia Boutella, who played Jaylah, is a really interesting new character to the Star Trek series; Boutella provides a really strong role who hides a horrific backstory about how she escaped Krall's prison camp and became an orphan.

However the best performance came from Karl Urban, who played Doctor 'Bones' McCoy. Urban has really done a great job of creating this abrasive, blunt doctor who is capable of great advice and insight. Within Star Trek: Beyond we see Bones in more of an action role within a few scenes which lead to a lot of laughs, especially when you include his snide remarks and grumbled insults. Yet what I appreciated most about Urban's performance in this film were his scenes with Pine and Quinto which led to some very poignant reflective scenes that really got at the nature of these characters and what they're doing while exploring the frontier.

If this film has a weak point it's a rather safe second act which doesn't bother taking any risks with the main cast, you don't feel tense or worried for your favourite characters at any stage of this point of the film. There are also a few subplots which feel tired and over-used. We know by now that Spock and Kirk retiring isn't going to happen so it'd be nice to stop beating that plot point to death; it's also rather irritating to see Quinto and Saldana's roles having yet another lover's feud as a subplot.

Zoe Saldana, who played Lieutenant Uhura, doesn't really do anything within this film; I felt like they completely wasted one of their strongest cast members. Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov, didn't have much screen presence in this film; his character elicits a chuckle now again but ultimately he's probably the most forgettable of the main cast. Joe Taslim, who played Manas, was a rather stereotypical henchman type role in this film; it's a shame the conflict between him and Boutella wasn't given more focus. Lydia Wilson, who played Kalara, was a pretty predictable plot point of a character from the get go; it was no big shock that she was a traitor working for Krall. Melissa Roxburgh, who played Ensign Syl, is a minor role with an important part in the plot; yet despite this it would have been nice to see her as a character rather than just a means to advancing the story. Shohreh Aghdashloo, who played Commodore Paris, was a rather dull performance within this film; her presence made what could have been an interesting story about Kirk's self-doubt rather boring.