The premise of Beyond is business as usual for this series: The crew of the USS Enterprise led by Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) gets into trouble in the bowels of space when an alien warlord named Krall (a heavily made-up Idris Elba, who makes Oscar Issac's hamtastic turn in X-Men: Apocalypse look restrained) boards their ship and causes it to crash land on his home planet of Altamid, splitting up the Enterprise crew and kidnapping Lieutenants Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Sulu (John Cho) in the process. Despite possessing a familiar setup and the exact same set of central characters, Beyond largely fails to recreate the magic of both of its predecessors. New screenwriters Doug Jung and Simon Pegg-who plays Enterprise engineer Scotty-establish a corny yet stone-faced tone that is the polar opposite of what Abrams and co. put forth in the previous two films. Fans of the series will likely be delighted by the return to the series' campy roots, but it just reminded me of why I never could get into any of the old-school series or movies. The film tries to remain dead serious while its trotting out a treasure trove of awful one-liners and touting a villain that is so cartoonishly over-the-top that nothing he does or says can be perceived as legitimately menacing. My love of cheesy movies is well-documented, but I can't get behind films like this that try to sell their ridiculousness with a straight face.
The saving grace of Beyond comes in the form of director Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 3-6). The choice of Lin to helm Beyond was widely criticized because the Fast and Furious films are considered to be cinematic poison in fanboy circles, but his supreme talent as an action director keeps the film afloat amidst all the bad writing and grating corniness. Lin's flare for staging and shooting huge, spastic action sequences effortlessly transitions to the world of outer space. He's handled dozens of scenes with flying cars and human beings pulling off superhero-esque feats, so staging similar scenes with spaceships and aliens was an easy task for the veteran director. If Abrams doesn't return to the fold (which admittedly is unlikely) for the recently-announced fourth installment, Paramount would be wise to bring back Lin for another go-round. The quality of the action scenes and the likability of the members of the Enterprise crew make Beyond a passable watch, but the sheer disappointment I felt after watching it can not be understated. In a summer slate full of pleasant surprises and occasional flashes of brilliance, Star Trek Beyond is the first true letdown.
3/5 Stars
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