Film Review: Star Trek Beyond

The latest Star Trek film Star Trek Beyond was released in most of the world in late July and I’d like to share my thoughts on the film. I am aware that many fans like or love this film and I respect that. This is simply my opinion of it. I wanted to like this film, but didn’t end up doing so as I had a mixed reaction. Regarding the new films I’ll say that I have some issues with this alternate universe that these films are set in (officially known as the Kelvin Timeline), but ultimately I liked the 2009 Star Trek film and disliked its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). I went into more detail about my thoughts on the first two films in my very first blog post here. I’ll begin with the positive issues of this film.

The film looked good visually. It’s uniforms, ship designs, sets, layout of the planet and the planet designs were very faithful to Star Trek. Parts of the planet seem reminiscent of a planet visited by the crew in Star Trek: The Original Series. It’s good how this film dealt with exploration in a way that the previous two films didn’t, as this film didn’t have any scenes taking place on earth. It was nice to see quite a few alien species in this film. While there are some qualities of this alternate version of Captain Kirk I’m not into, I do like it how in this film Captain Kirk was more mature than before. I didn’t like it how in Star Trek Into Darkness, Captain Kirk and Spock didn’t seem to get along well when that story began, so am pleased that they didn’t get into an argument in this film, though they did not spend a lot of screen time together in this film.

I’ll now go into some negative issues of the film. I found the film’s story to be weak, and an over-focus on action scenes. I thought the film lacked energy and soul. There were some jokes in the film that I didn’t enjoy. I wasn’t fond of the usage of a few rap songs in the film.

When Director Justin Lin spoke of the villain Krall, he spoke of Krall having a valid point of view and exploring the theme of some alien cultures disliking the Federation. Krall to me was just a tough violent character without much depth. When they finally revealed the full details of Krall, it seemed to contradict the message Justin had been saying. Yes, the film did speak of unity when working against Krall, but to me there wasn’t any discussion about the Federation through his character. I won’t reveal what Krall’s true identity is, but his true identity and background ended up being what I find to be a character type overdone in Star Trek.

It’s disappointing to me, as Star Trek: The Original Series is the Star Trek series I like the most, I want these films to give me similar feelings I get when watching the original characters and I didn’t get that with this film.

The film wasn’t bad, it’s just that I had too many issues with it to consider it to be a good film. I found it better than the previous film Star Trek Into Darkness that I didn’t like which is a positive. It had good moments throughout, some related to Star Trek but the film as a whole didn’t work together. Some elements of this film such the exploring theme and Captain Kirk’s performance improved upon the 2009 film, but the issues I mentioned resulted in my lowered opinion of it. I thought it was half a Star Trek film, half a generic Sci-Fi Action film. I also think Justin Lin’s directing style doesn’t appeal to me as the way he edited it, paced it and the tone wasn’t one I enjoyed.

I hope that for the next Star Trek film, which was was announced just before Star Trek Beyond opened, they will find a Director who is not famous for directing action, but for story and intelligence as I feel those two factors are needed the most in these new films. While I am aware that the new films will have action, I dislike the overemphasis on action as displayed in the last two films. I know the sequel to this film is unlikely to have good storytelling and intelligence, so what’s most important for me is for the film to feel like Star Trek, have more depth & substance, a stronger villain, be paced better and be a good entertaining film which I unfortunately didn’t find this one to be.

Thoughts on the Recent Star Trek Beyond Trailer

A few weeks ago, the first full trailer debuted for the film Star Trek Beyond which will be released in late July. I wasn’t fond of the teaser trailer that came out in December and I gave my thoughts on the film in my very first blog post in January. While I wouldn’t call this trailer incredible, I think it’s so much better than December’s teaser and is fairly good. I will embed the trailer here if anyone wants to see it before I give my thoughts on the trailer.

I’ll start off with the negative issues. I didn’t like it how Captain Kirk seemed to be implying to Dr. McCoy that he joined Starfleet for the wrong reasons. This looks like the filmmakers are still going with a Captain Kirk who is not mature enough. I know this is an Alternate Universe where things are different, but he’s been Captain for some time now, especially as this film takes place two and a half years into their five year mission. I really want to see this Captain Kirk having the leadership qualities we know and love, and still hope that at least some of that will be there in the film. I didn’t like the moment when Spock and Uhura kissed, as I don’t like it how in these recent films these two have a relationship. I do have some concerns the action in the film may be too fast paced and over the top.

I’ll now move on into the positives. I really like the shot of Captain Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy together as with the original characters, there was a great focus on the friendship between these three. It seems unlikely that this film will focus on that friendship, but it is good to see a moment between those three characters. The exchange between Spock and Dr. McCoy where Spock says “Fear of death is illogical” and Dr. McCoy’s reply “Fear of death is what keeps us alive” is a classic Spock-Dr. McCoy interaction. This film looks good visually with shots of the Enterprise, the swarm of enemy vessels, the underground prison, the zero gravity action on buildings and the Enterprise crashing towards the planet. I really like the new effect of travelling at warp speed. The villain Krall has an interesting alien accent.

I will suggest a theory of mine on where the plot could lead to in the film. This is a potential spoiler in case it turns out to be true, so if you are concerned this section may spoil the film for you, I recommend you skip this paragraph. My ideas will be italicised in the following section. Some of the crew meet a female alien named Jaylah on the planet. She could be really working for Krall. It can be seen in the trailer that Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty and Jaylah all end up on the old Starship USS Franklin that they found which they eventually get up and running, rescue the rest of their crew and go off into space. Krall may have hired her to pretend to be on their side and placed the USS Franklin on the planet knowing that they’d be able to get it up and running. In the trailer Jaylah says “Everyone who goes there, he kills” which could be a line said to make him look evil to them, thus making her appear good which would help her carry out her plan (similar to a deceptive tactic used at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 when the enemy Jem’Hadar aliens were introduced). Krall could be setting up the Enterprise crew for a trap though Jaylah when they finally reach where it is that they’re going.    

I’m not completely convinced I’ll like the film, but it does look good and made me get more excited about it with the hope that it can be a good film. Close to the end of next month all will be revealed.  

My Fears and Hopes for Star Trek Beyond

As the Star Trek Beyond trailer along with interviews with people involved in the film appeared last month, I decided to write my thoughts on the film in response to this information. Firstly, I'll say what I think of the previous two films, Star Trek (2009) & Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). I am a Star Trek fan and I would have liked the 2009 film to be a mature intelligent film with a good story, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. However I did enjoy it as it was a good, entertaining film. I liked it how it was based on the original series (the Star Trek crew I like the most) and I loved seeing Leonard Nimoy's Spock (my favourite Star Trek character). I didn't like Star Trek Into Darkness as I found it to be badly written, rehashing material from both the 2009 film and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a bad choice of villain, Captain Kirk acting youthfully immature (a negative fact of the 2009 film that was worse here) and so on. For me, the 2009 film despite its changes did feel like Star Trek, but Star Trek Into Darkness didn't. I want the next film to be good and feel like Star Trek.

Here are my fears for this film.

Fears

I didn't like the way the trailer was structured and the music used. I fear that it will turn into a mindless action film having a bad story. I was not pleased to hear Chris Pine who plays Captain Kirk say "This one, I can definitively say, has the most action out of any one we’ve done so far." in a Yahoo! Movies set visit. That sounds bad as I found one of the reasons why Star Trek Into Darkness wasn't good was because the action was increased. While I wouldn't say the first film had a good balance between action and story, I thought it was OK in that aspect. The second film however had occasions when the action got in the way of the story. I'm hoping that the action isn't really being increased, but it's just something said to excite people who like action. I'm hoping that it may not mean more action, but more epic action scenes. If there's anything that should be increased it should be the storytelling, not the action. The actors would experience filming action scenes, but ultimately, the pace of the film will be determined by the editors irrespective of what’s shot.

I was disappointed by the fact that it is written by Simon Pegg (also Scotty actor) and Doug Jung. In Simon's case, it's because he was disrespectful to Star Trek fans who didn't like Star Trek Into Darkness, the fact that his previous writing credits have been comedies and the fact that they were rude comedies (a style I don't like) makes me concerned he might put too much comedy into the film and some rude jokes too. Since he hasn't written a non-comedy before, it’s possible he might not be good at it. I also haven't been impressed with his performance as Scotty. Doug Jung doesn't seem to be a good choice to me. There is also the fact that these writers began working on the script around the start of 2015 for a shoot in 6 months which makes it seem like a rush job. I'm not pleased with the choice of Director Justin Lin. A lot of his credits don’t look good, especially the Fast & Furious films which isn't a type of film I like. In response to fan criticism that he's making a Fast & Furious film in the Star Trek universe, Justin said “Yeah, and I don’t know if that’s the case here”. The fact that he said he's not too sure instead of that he's not makes me worried. I get it that those are films he’s made that he’s proud of, but these are two different franchises and making that kind of film in the Star Trek universe is disrespectful to Star Trek. I will now move on into my hopes for the film.

Hopes  

While I didn't like the way the trailer was structured, I did like some of the imagery from the trailer. Hearing some comments from Justin Lin about the story made me feel pleased about it. The idea of the Enterprise crew getting their ship taken out with 40,000 enemy vessels and them being forced to evacuate to this planet could be a good idea if executed well. I do like the design of the villain Krall and the line he says "This is where it begins, Captain. This is where the frontier pushes back". Justin Lin said these comments in a Collider interview:

“I think that at its core I felt like on this chapter if we could kind of deconstruct Trek on different levels and then hopefully reaffirm why it’s great then we can maybe send it off and they’ll have a long run after this, and that to me was kinda on a more cerebral sense, you know, I feel like that was kinda the mission here on this one. ... in this timeline I wanted to hopefully create something where we can be on the five-year mission, we can hopefully explore and push, and introduce new species, and put them in situations where hopefully it then mirrors back and reflects about the exploration of humanity. ... I like his character because his character is really challenging the way of The Federation’s philosophy, I think it’s great being a fan and a lot of times I watch Utopia, East San Francisco, and I always feel like, “Oh wow.” When you’re building this movie, you’re like, “So they don’t have money. How do they live? How do they compete?” And those are things that I think his character in a way has a very distinct and valid point of view.”

These comments give hope that there will be thought-provoking ideas in the film and an interesting villain. I hope that unlike the last film, the Federation's ideals will be portrayed positively. I like it how he mentioned going more on a cerebral sense. This film comes out during the 50th Anniversary so it's important that the film pay respect to Star Trek's legacy and values.

Regarding the Spock & Uhura romance, Justin said in Birth.Movies.Death “What we’re doing is appropriate to the two and a half years. It’s a continuation in a way, and I don’t want to ignore things and act as if they don’t exist, so there’s an acknowledgement and I think their relationship is consistent to the way it was before”. This comment hints that their relationship may not be in the film, which is good to hear as I didn't like it how they were in a relationship in these films. Even if it’s still there, it is likely be reduced according to these comments.

It's good that this film is set two and a half years into the Enterprise's five year mission featuring more exploring and especially the fact that there's many new alien species in this film. Justin said in the Yahoo! Movies set visit said that there'll be five times as many new species than the previous two films put together.    

Final word

There are some signs that this film may turn out in a way that I won't like and there are also other signs that it will turn out in a way that I like. I'm very aware that the type of Star Trek film I want won’t be made by these filmmakers, but I do hope it will take what worked for the 2009 film, have more maturity and bring back Star Trek’s thought-provoking themes. Justin said in Birth.Movies.Death:

“I’m going to use a sports analogy, so forgive me. I can tell you what a great athlete I am, what a great basketball player I am, but when I step on the court you’re going to know very quickly whether I’m any good. In a way I feel like it’s easy to preach what the Federation is about, how you’re supposed to act, but what happens when you [are on your heels]. How do you react?”.

What he says applies to his film as directors promise all kind of good things about their films, but it’s only once the film comes out that we will know how true they were (if at all) to their word.