Star Trek Beyond: Spoiler Free and Spoiler Review

Welcome to my reviews of Star Trek Beyond, a movie that is so great, like if I had to filter it in my ranking of the films it would definitely be in the top ten. If you have read my other reviews before you know how this works, but if you're new then I write down my non-spoiler reactions to the film and then once you have seen the film or you want to test the waters, you can read my spoiler part of the review. With all that in mind let us begin.

Non-Spoiler Review.

So what can I say about Star Trek Beyond that won't spoiler anything? Well first, I can say that there is a lot of humor. That humor derives from four characters, but I think every character got a laugh out of me but these characters got more laughs and chuckles out of me. Bones, Spock, Scotty, and the new addition, Sofia Boutella's Jaylah. Idris Elba plays the villain, and he definitely is threatening and scary. Every crew member of the Enterprise gets their chance in the spotlight. The message this time around is a terrific one, especially for the story this film is telling. The action sequences are unique and awesome at the same time. Honestly, at the theater, I had a blast. As always, it's your decision on whether or not you want to pay to see it in 3D, so that is entirely up to you. Now let's take a deep dive into the spoilers of the film.

SPOILER Review

As always, I'll go character by character and then after I'm done with that I'll mention the action, effects, and score.

Chris Pine as James T. Kirk

Captain Kirk as always shines and this film is no exception. In this film, he is undergoing some personal dilemma. He's trying define himself. He knows that he's a Starfleet Captain and the son of George Kirk. But what does that say about him? Who is he? After he and his crew are stranded, he goes through his journey while trying to give himself an understanding of who he is. One of my favorite lines he has in the film was when he is talking to our villain and said "I was born into a house that sacrifices their lives for others." It really speaks to who he is what he does. I really liked the action sequences he had, especially his one where he rode on that motorcycle and used that multiplying hologram technology to distract Krall and his minions. However that device has a major flaw. More on that when we get to Jaylah. I think Spock, Bones, and him have this humorous routine that we, the audience get to experience. Also, what a way defeat your enemies by listening to Beastie Boys.

Zachary Quinto as Spock

Spock over the course of this rebooted franchise has become funnier and funnier and in this film his humor scale hit an all time high. His relationship with Uhura helped with that as Spock gave her what is practically a tracking device. I liked the part where Bones was fixing his wound and asked what his favorite color and his response was "I hardly see how that is relevant," but before he could finish Bones started extracting the metal piece that stuck in him. He got some great moments in the action sequences. In the story, it was interesting to find that Spock would want to retire from Starfleet and finish the work that Leonard Nimoy's Spock started. That was an interesting way to incorporate the death of Leonard Nimoy into the story. I hope in future installments, he doesn't leave the franchise. As Kirk says "What would I do without you?"

Karl Urban as Leonard Mcoy/Bones

Karl Urban is definitely one of the characters that takes the work of his predecessor and improves it and succeed the previous work that was done. Karl Urban is a great actor, a fantastic actor. He makes a great Bones. Bones is funnier, helpful, and important to this new crew. He makes the infamous "Darn it man, I'm a doctor, not a" line. This time he almost said the f word, but thankfully was interrupted by the transporter beam. Not that I can't handle the f word, I just prefer not to hear it, especially in a Star Trek film. In this film he seems to serve as the comedic relief and important to the story. I especially liked the pep talk he gave to Kirk in the beginning of the film.

Idris Elba as Krall/Captain Balthazar

In most of the reviews I read and watched, a lot of people said that the plot was easily simplistic and that every twist was easy to see coming. Did you see this twist coming though? It was interesting to have out villain be a Starfleet Captain from the past that has lived for so many years, thanks to his rejuvenating machine or something. Just think of it as a machine version of Rupunzel's hair from Tangled, except not only does it keep you young, it gives you the appearance of the species you use it on. I found that very intriguing. It fit perfectly that he was a Starfleet Captain, because he was the example of what would happen to Kirk if he kept doing what we saw him doing at the beginning of the film. As Shohreh Aghdashloo's character says "He just got lost." I loved the way his ship worked. At first, it looks like one massive ship, but then it splits apart into millions of little ships. We'll talk more about that when we get to effects.

Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott/Scotty

This film made it no secret that Scotty was scottish. He calls Jaylah "Lassie" a few times, which was odd. It was okay first, but it became weird, especially after she told him her name. Other than that Scotty, as always, remains one of my favorite character. Simon Pegg, like Karl Urban, takes the previous work of the character and improves it. He really surpasses the work that was done by James Doohan in the original series. He always has these really funny metaphors that I laugh out loud to. I liked his interactions with Jaylah. For a minute, I thought that there would possibly be a romance between the two, however the more I think about that, I thought about the unlikeliness of that fact. If there is though, I would be interested to see how that goes. I like I his little green sidekick. I don't know his name. It was funny that his snot was acid that melted down the metal to help them escape. Indeed Sulu, that is "One heck of a cold."

Sofia Boutella as Jaylah

I really liked the new addition to the Star Trek crew. I hope she really stays in the franchise for future films. I hope she doesn't go the way that Alice Eve's character did from Into Darkness, where she was there in that film and then never seen again. As I said with Kirk, the technology used to multiply yourself but they're holograms is a big flaw. For all Kirk knew, Krall could've had each one of his soldiers target a holographic projection, then fire all at the same time and they would kill Kirk. Luckily, that didn't happen, but then that's bad thinking on Krall's part. It was cool to see that she was living in, what I believe they said was the first starship ever, the U.S.S Franklin. There is something I didn't understand with Jaylah. I don't think she said in what way she was stranded on the planet. She just said she was attacked, as a child, and was stranded there since. I think maybe watching it again in the future will give me a more understanding. I'm not familiar with Sofia Boutella, but in this film she was great. She was a wonderful addition to the cast.

Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov

I don't know about you, but I think that Chekov got a role upgrade in this film. In the first two film, he was just there as an extra. They never really had him be a standout. However, in this film, he was focused on even more. Which makes it all the more sad that were only able to scratch the surface with this actor before his tragic and surprising death just this past June. For those of you who don't know, Anton Yelchin died by pinned in between his car and a brick pillar. It was in the evening and he bled out all night. To make a long story short, he was found by some friends of his and his death was later described as a "freak accident." I wonder what the future of the character. It will definitely not be recast in this timeline, J.J Abrams has stated that that would diminish Anton's memory. I wonder if the characters in the next film will say he's away on business or proclaim him dead off camera.

John Cho as Hikaru Sulu

The main huge spoiler for Sulu I guess is that they decided to make the character gay. How do I know this, its because when they dock at Yorktown we see Sulu reunite with another man and a child. I know many of you will say "Hey Dallin, that's probably his brother and his brother's kid." Well I thought so too, until I looked it up and indeed it was confirmed that he's gay. I don't know what to think about that, I'm sure they'll be agreements and disagreements about that fact, but consider my opinion undecided. Other than that both himself and Uhura didn't have much to do really. Once they were captured by Krall, they were prisoners of war and did't serve any big part to the story.

Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura

I like Zoe Saldana as Uhura as I do with the other actors, but she wasn't a huge part of the story. I mean you can't focus on every character in a Star Trek film, because then it becomes too crowded. Uhura certainly got great moments, but again, and with all due respect to Zoe Saldana, Uhura became a damsel in distress along with her cremates. She got a bit of action in the film, not a lot, but enough. Also, again, that basic tracking device necklace that Spock gave her was hilarious. I liked how at the end that Bones and Spock looked at the necklace and then looked at each other and gave the look of "I'm saying anything." That was a great laugh for me and the audience.

Now that we are finished talking about the cast and characters, we are now going to talk about the visual effects, the costumes, and the score.

Visual Effects and Costumes

Thank goodness that the lens flares are gone. That was my main problem with the first two films. I believe they got rid of them in this film. Now maybe there are and I didn't notice them, but I didn't recall seeing any. Also, I believe after having seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens that the effects have this thing were they look the same. Probably it's because they were done by the same visual effects company. I thought Yorktown looked very neat and shiny. The starships looked fantastic per usual. Although, why would the crew build an entirely new designed starship instead of making another Enterprise. That would've been much harder to destroy, I mean you saw what happened to it when Krall and his minions destroyed it and how easy it was. I loved the effects of the weapons, the holograms, and the planets as well as the cool new aliens that were shown. As usual, the costumes were great. I loved the look of Krall. Whoever does the costumes for these films deserves a lot recognition.

Score: Composed By Michael Giacchino

I love the scores that Michael Giacchino composes. His responsible for some Pixar scores, he did Jurassic World, Mission Impossible 3-present, he also worked on Tomorrowland. Anyways I love this new work on the recent Star Trek films. It has a great sense of adventure and space exploration. I find it very enjoyable to listen to. I honestly don't know why I like it so much. I just do.

Conclusion

My final conclusion for this film is that after the lackluster response to Into Darkness, although I loved it, the Star Trek franchise is back on track. I'm excited for the tv series in 2017 and I wonder how that'll add to the franchise. I wonder why this hasn't been soaring at the box office. It's the films third weekend and the film has only made 199.8 million on a 185 million budget. If you haven't seen it, go see it. You'll have a great time, even if you are not a die hard Star Trek fan. I read an article saying it's a box office flop, it doesn't deserve that. This summer has been an underperforming one. Sure we had some greats, but we have also have many other films that failed.

So that's my review for Star Trek Beyond, what did you think if you saw it. Type your reaction down in the comments. Be sure to tune into my redux of my Star Trek ranking to include this film. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your willingness to save some time to read this post. To reward you for your time, Let me share with you a new series called VS. In it I feud two films or franchises against each other. My first experiment will be feud two of Disney's best princess films. Tangled vs Frozen. In other stuff, here are other things I am working on see below for more info.

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