Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Star Trek Beyond

(Movie Review)

Positives
* There's a lot of debate about what a Star Trek movie should be.  (I know a lot of fans want to see a more intellectual movie).  But whether or not this is the Star Trek movie you wanted to see, you've got to at least give the film makers credit for doing what they set out to do.  They set out to do an action/adventure film set in space, and they delivered on that premise with a lot of incredible action set-pieces

* The best thing this reboot series has going for it is the very talented cast, and it's true in this movie as well.  (Rest in peace Anton Yelchin).

* Related to the above points, it has a script that gives all the characters time to shine, and has a lot of character driven moments.

Negatives
* Yet another villain who just wants to blow up everyone for the sake of blowing up everyone.

* The list of "things that are never explained at all" in this movie is really pushing it.  There's a lot of magical alien technologies.  (I guess that's par for the course in a Star Trek film).  Krall's motivation is kind of explained, but not really.  I still don't know what was the motivation of everyone working for Krall.  I don't understand how Krall got his powers.

* Jaylah's character was intriguing--what little we saw of her--but she never got developed into someone the audience was attached to.  Which made it bizarre when one of the movie's climatic fight scenes revolved completely around her.  What do I care happens to this white skin lady I've barely been introduced to?

* It's a minor thing, but for what it's worth I agree with George Takei about the gay Sulu controversy.  It was a nice gesture, but it would have been better to just leave Roddenberry's characters as they were, especially once George Takei had made his feelings known to the film makers (which he apparently did before the filming).

The Review
I know fans have high expectations of everything Star Trek, but for me, this film did exactly what it set out to do.  It was a fun action/adventure movie set in space.

Rating :
8 out of 10 stars

Links

For a counterpoint, see Fredrik deBoer, who writes:

I saw the new Star Trek movie. When I tell you that it’s all punching and shooting, I’m really not exaggerating. It’s all punching and shooting. And as far as punching and shooting summer action movies goes, it’s OK. It has an ending that’s like two 13 year old boys talking about what a good ending would be via text message, but it isn’t completely soulless, which is better than you can say for most franchise movies.
But Star Trek isn’t about punching or shooting.  It’s contemplative. It’s about actual moral conflict and ambiguity. It’s optimistic about the prospect of peace and the ability to solve problems nonviolently. It lets stories develop slowly. It’s about exploration and diplomacy far more than its about combat. 

Speaking as someone who was completely obsessed with Star Trek in his youth, I think Star Trek's reputation as "the thinking man's science fiction franchise" has been much exaggerated.  Sure, when the original series was at its best, it could be contemplative, about actual moral conflict and ambiguity, and optimistic about the prospect of peace and the ability to solve problems nonviolently. But I challenge people to go ahead and re-watch the original 1960s Star Trek.  It had episodes which were completely dumb, many episodes which ended in a climatic bare-knuckled fist fight, and lots of episodes that seemed to exist only for the purpose of having a few fight scenes and some scantily clad alien women.  (Some of the original Star Trek episodes were even polemics against pacifism as a realistic alternative--like City on the Edge of  Forever (W) ).
All of which is to say that I don't believe making Star Trek into a dumb action movie ruins the franchise.  Star Trek is a versatile franchise.  It can easily be a dumb action movie in one incarnation, and serious and contemplative in the next incarnation.  I'm content to enjoy this movie for what it is.

Update:
See Whisky Prajer's review over here.

Star Trek Links 
My review of Star Trek Into Darkness here,
My review of the original 2009 reboot here.
My review of Star Trek Enterprise here.
My 4th grade report (1987) on the original Star Trek series here.

Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky: Documentary on US Terrorism. (2016).

2 comments:

dpreimer said...

"Gay Sulu" was just kinda ... there. And so far as tributes go, it was a really tentative attempt. I didn't expect them to jump each other, but ... a hand on the back? Yeesh. Kirk and Spock have more going on between them.

Joel Swagman said...

I guess it was a whole lot of nothing, wasn't it? The media coverage of it turned out to be a much bigger deal than the actual 2 seconds of screen time and the hand on the back.