Weekend Trek “Star Trek Beyond”

Simon Pegg, an actual Star Trek fan, co-wrote the story for this movie, but then his original story required some fixing because, apparently, it was too much like actual Star Trek.

I can see that.

I actually have a lot to say about this one, but not a lot of time to say anything, so I guess I will be brief.  Or not.  We’ll see.  This movie came out after the deaths of both Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, and they both get a tribute in the closing credits.  JJ Abrams stepped aside from the director’s chair, letting Justin Lin, veteran of multiple Fast and Furious movies, meaning that may be why we get an action scene involving Kirk on a motorcycle.  Then again, we also have actress Sofia Boutella under heavy make-up as the alien Jaylah, and if you think there wouldn’t be a chance for her to use her dancer’s agility in a good fight scene, you must be new here.

This is also the movie where Spock gets a framed photo of the original cast, half of whom were dead when this movie came out (and I don’t know if Nichelle Nichols was still alive at the time, and I am not inclined to check right now), and it’s a moment where I honestly noticed that the new cast doesn’t really look like they will age into looking like these characters save maybe Zachary Quinto.

But dammit, they sure do seem like the original characters, and that’s what counts.

It’s also the movie that made Sulu gay as a tribute to George Takei, and Takei himself objected because Gene Roddenberry wrote Sulu as a straight man.

However, let me take a moment and say that the thing that makes this movie work, aside from some sharp humor, is the character interactions and the villain.  Idris Elba’s Krall, a man who is actually a lost, human Starfleet soldier who couldn’t tolerate peace after being great at war, is very much the path Kirk might be walking down, a man who doesn’t want to grow up (Kirk’s 30th birthday is a plot point here), who wants action and can’t stand peacetime.  It’s the warning, and Kirk takes it well, becoming a more thoughtful and mature version of himself than he was, and since this appears to be the final movie in this continuity, well, I guess we’ll never see how that all works out.

That Kirk seems at peace with finishing his five-year mission, after the disastrous diplomacy against ankle-sized aliens in the opening–I like that one of the tiny aliens that accidentally beamed up with Kirk is wandering around in a Starfleet uniform and goes by “Kevin” at the end of the movie–is a nice thing.  It’s just a shame that I’ll never see the results of the more mature Kirk in future movies.

The other thing is the character interaction.  The story sticks McCoy and Spock together, and they bicker like McCoy and Spock, but they didn’t have much chance to do in previous movies.  But there’s also Sulu with Uhura and Kirk with Chekov, pairings that I know didn’t happen before.  Heck, has Sulu even spoken to Uhura before this moment?  Scotty is the exception.  His silent sidekick Keenser is sneezing acid with a weird cold, and the two are separated for much of the movie, not that Keenser is much of a character since he doesn’t talk or anything.  He just climbs on stuff for Scotty to yell at him for.  Scotty instead is the one who finds and befriends Jaylah, an important role, but this movie more than the other two seemed to be designed to give the entire cast something to do.

And then the Beastie Boys destroys a swarm of alien attack craft, with McCoy calling it “classical music.”

Yeah, this was a good one, like the other two really.  I wouldn’t rank it, or maybe any of the Kelvin timeline stuff, among the best of the Trek movies, but it was fun, and that was enough for me.

Now, will Star Trek Discovery work for me?  I’ll find out starting next time.