'Star Trek Beyond' A Review

Star Trek Beyond is a sci-fi adventure film the third installment in the franchise reboot. After three years of exploring space both Kirk(Chris Pine) and Spock(Zachary Quinto) have developed desires outside the Enterprise. After stopping at a base to restock a distress call comes in and the crew sets off to investigate. What is waiting is not what they expected.

It is nice to revisit the likable characters we know and have affection for but there is a lack of depth with each new installment as the cast of characters gets bigger. A problem the TV show didn't necessarily have simply by the function of number of episodes and longevity. Pine and Quinto are engaging as they always are but even then not a ton of time is spent on any kind of character development. Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, and Anton Yelchin don't fair as well, although they are charming and its great to see them again, their screen time is little and so are almost reduced to caricatures. John Cho as Sulu gets a bit more focus than usual and is gratifyingly badass at moments but even so it feels like an appetizer rather than a meal. Sofia Boutella as Jaylah is a refreshing new addition but there is something derivative about the character which is more than reminiscent of Saldana's character in Avatar. Elba as the villain is fantastic as he always is but he isn't given a ton to work with. The talent of the actors is undeniable its simply clear they aren't utilized to their full potential.

Visually the film is striking, the space sequences and alien planets majestic. This is not really a surprise coming from director Justin Lin. Some of the fight scenes are of the close-and-shakey variety making them a little incomprehensible but overall the aesthetics of the film are the best and most exciting they've been in the series so far.

Entertaining but emotionally thin. A serviceable escape from the summer heat.

Rent It.