Star Trek Beyond

Before I write a review I like to browse through the other comments posted first. To surmise, many have got it quite right, this is not the best Star Trek movie, but it is a good one. The story is reasonable, although there are plenty of plot holes that you have to overlook and not delve into them too deeply. I also think that the size of that deep space station is just OTT even for that century, it is far too advanced! Anyway, get over the minor flaws and you will begin to notice that they are starting to focus more on character development and interaction of the personalities within the crew. It is what real fans enjoy the most, including the odd bit of humour.

As for the highly negative reviews on here, please start to put your rankings in perspective, this is by no means a shocking movie and definitely is fit to join the Star Trek Universe. It really winds me up when people rank this movie in the same breath as some of the real shockers we have seen in the last few years!

I admit that this chapter wasn't as good as the first two, but it was still quite enjoyable. The best part about this movie is how utterly beautiful it is. The special effects are wonderful and everything is so nice just to look at. There's always fine details and creative execution. The best parts are still probably when the various crew members get separated. This is what makes a franchise as big as "Star Trek" so much fun. It's just great to see how the characters interact and play off of each other. I couldn't get any synopsis out of this film here other than the characters going somewhere new and fighting a new enemy. Don't most characters do that?

I admit the plot could be better and the villain is a bit confusing. It's still a film in good spirits and I like all the little references to the old show, how subtle or blatant they might be. One important note. I remember hearing that in this movie the character Sulu was going to come out as gay as a way to honor his original actor, George Takei, coming out. Takei himself didn't like this idea. It is never stated that Sulu is gay, but we do see him briefly hold hands with another man implying he is. I guess it was sort of a compromise with George Takei. I like the idea of openly gay characters, but if the actor or people involved don't want it, that's just fine. It's great to see how creative and beautiful this amazing world looks and you really in on the action with the Enterprise. ***

After being attacked by a huge swarm of unknown ships the crew of the Starship Enterprise are separated and spread across a mysterious planet, there they must search for each other and battle a new villain who is against all that the federation stands for.

Star Trek: Into Darkness was well received when first released but afterwards many fans changed their opinions and it began to receive less than lukewarm feelings from people who went back to watch it, due to it's non Star Trek feel. So with new writers (Simon Pegg and Doug Jung) and a new director (Justin Lin, known for directing some of the Fast and Furious films) is Star Trek Beyond able to recapture the original feeling of Star Trek? Yes, it more than does this. In fact this ,the third film in the new series of Star Trek movies, feels like an extended episode from the original series. There is a lot of fun to be had with this film and in all honesty it might actually have a running time that is just over two hours but when watching it the pace is so fast and the action is so well shot the running time only seems to be just over 45 minutes. Another thing that new director Lin has been able to successfully do is bring the audience into the actual adventure, the audience doesn't just watch the film they are almost taking part, they are made to feel as if they are in the same world, the exact same situations as the characters causing them to not only laugh along with them when there are comedic moments ,which nearly always hit the right mark, but also feel involved in the action and the adventure. The chemistry between all the characters is always on top form and all actors clearly get on well making the on screen chemistry more realistic especially between Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban). The characters of Spock and Bones ,helped by Pegg and Jung's script, go together so well creating a really well thought out and timed double act while still keeping the frame of the original characters, still providing the much needed action and adventure that is vital to this sort of film. As for the Visual Effects ,next to Ghostbusters, they are some of the best to be seen on the big screen this year and go towards creating an even greater sense of realism and once again pulling the audience in with immense ease.

Fans will be pleased by this new entry into the Star Trek series, because Star Trek Beyond not only feels like a successful extended episode but the acting, story, characters, action, effects and so much more go towards creating a fun, crowd pleasing sci-fi adventure.

**** <-- Four Stars

Okay, as a lifelong Star Trek fan and not a big fan of the last movie, I had serious reservations about this one - especially as it was directed by Justin "Fast & Furious" Lin. However, credit where it's due, he made a great attempt at this, and it turned out to be good fun (and WAY better than Jar Jar Abrams' "Into Darkness" mess). It's STILL not Star Trek like the REAL Star Trek - there are no memorable lines here and you won't be playing particular scenes over and over in your head, but this is the world we now live in. They've given all your other favorites the same treatment (and ruined them too), James Bond and Star Wars being among the countless franchises to fall victim. Somehow we've got the point where ALL movies need to be a politically correct as possible, have as a diverse a cast as possible, and appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Hollywood want EVERYBODY to be fans of EVERYTHING from here on - no more closed communities thank you very much.

Given all this, and that Star Trek now has to fit this terrible template, this movie could have been SO much worse. Yes, it has plot holes galore (they're on purpose, don't you know? So the fans can have "insane theory" videos on YouTube), but it also has lots of references to the Star Trek Universe over the last 50 years to celebrate the 50th anniversary. These are subtle enough to indicate that they were put there for the real HARDCORE fans, which I thought was respectful and made me sit up and pay a bit more attention every time I spotted one. One thing that really bugged me though - some of the actors, as they get older, look even LESS like the characters should on screen. For instance, Simon Pegg would want to start piling on the pounds to play an older Scotty, and in the same vain Zachary Quinto should probably lose a few. But these are minor details for sure.

To finish on a positive note, Sofia Boutella who plays the alien Jaylah is really good, and a very likely contender to replace Anton Yelchin who sadly passed away recently. As I've read they won't be recasting Chekov (good!) then I think she would make a fine addition to the crew. Someone make this happen!

If you're a Trek fan at all you SHOULD go see this one. It's SLIGHTLY dragged out near the end, but there is at least a solid 90 minutes of big screen action to be enjoyed in there somewhere. A fitting way to celebrate 50 years of Trek? Maybe. I certainly didn't feel like walking out like during the last outing.. and during Star Wars... and during SPECTRE....

I was a bit surprised by the number of negative reviews this movie received on IMDb. The main complaint seemed to be that the film had too much action?! Anyone old enough to remember seeing 1979's 'The Motion Picture' on the big screen is a unique person... most of us fell asleep. Fortunately, 'Wrath of Khan' saved the day in 1982, with lots of action and a recycled, but disturbingly menacing villain.

C'mon folks... even the original series didn't get too deep and meaningful. It was the more action-oriented pilot featuring strong characters that knew how to have a laugh every now and then that got it the network green light. This is exactly what the reboot movies have been like up to now. Admittedly, there hasn't been a classic in the bunch yet, but the potential is certainly there.

In my view, the reboot films are one really scary villain away from producing a classic. With TNG it was the Borg. Doctor Who has the Daleks. Both races completely inhuman, really nasty, seemingly indestructible, and hellbent on destroying (be it assimilation or extermination) everything in their way. Boldly going where Trek has gone before, so to speak.