Jared Chesnut ... in space! Illustration by Sarah FaulknerJared Chesnut - BlazeRadio Operations Managerredc@uab.edu
Earth circa 2016 is a “strange new world” for a Star Trek film to explore.
Unlike 2009’s successful reboot and the polarizing sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the new Enterprise crew sees competition from a familiar foe: the reborn Star Wars franchise. The film also carries a large burden with it due to the passing of the late Leonard Nimoy and the tragic accident that took the life of Anton Yelchin, who has played the role of Chekov through the modern trio of films. It may be due to the harrowing odds and tribulations that the crew of “Star Trek Beyond” faced beyond the camera that the film has some impetus to sink or swim, succeed or fail, boldly go in one direction or the other. External pressures aside, the film manages to largely succeed as an entertaining, engaging action film, while it doesn’t quite feel like a Star Trek film.
“Star Trek Beyond” sees longtime “The Fast and the Furious” director Justin Lin take the reins from J.J. Abrams. Much like Lin’s previous work, the substitution brings a lot more action and faster pacing than the previous two films. After a brief opening stanza, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk takes “one last job” before riding off into the sunset and a cushy Vice Admiral chair. That job, however, takes place in the uncharted nebula, and unequipped to face the threat that waits in ambush, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves split apart, stranded and imprisoned on a mysterious mountainous planet. It’s among the crags and valleys of this planet that the majority of the film takes place, and the set’s pieces and encounters fare better because of this. It would have been far more difficult to put together some of the set pieces and fight sequences in the confines of a capital ship or the vacuum of space. Beyond that, Idris Elba brings an interesting take on the typical Star Trek villain as Krall, whose methodical, calculating, singular approach differs wildly from Eric Bana’s revenge driven Romulan, Nero and the psychological warfare of Benedict Cumberbatch’s adaptation of Khan. To pit the Enterprise against a foe with superior numbers, unknown technology and a strong leader make it feel like the heroes were underdogs, and for Star Trek’s history of treating redshirts as fodder and primary characters as nigh-immortal, there were moments where thoughts of one of the main crew being lost were given serious consideration; a realistic possibility considering how the film treats its characters.
With three films under their belt now, the reboot crew largely has had their characters fleshed out. “Star Trek Beyond” for the most part eschews character development in favor of building upon character relationships and interactions. Zachary Quinto’s Spock and Zoe Saldana’s Uhura are in a bit of an “on again, off again” situation. We’re finally introduced to the husband and child of James Cho’s Sulu (which drew some criticism from original actor George Takei), though they don’t play much of a part in the film. The begrudging friendship between Spock and Karl Urban’s “Bones” McCoy is better explained, and Montgomery Scott, played by Simon Pegg, finds a kindred spirit in Jaylah, a crafty, headstrong, hands on type played by Sofia Boutella who has been stranded on the planet for most of her life, and has a prominent role in the story that sees her arc of development go from brooding loner to major team player. This all builds up a group versus individual dynamic, which plays out not only in the context of the characters and plot, but in a literal form in some of the film’s key battles as well as the ultimate showdown.
One doubt that continued to come up even after leaving the theatre was that, while “Star Trek Beyond” is undoubtedly a great film, it never quite felt like a Star Trek film. Through its 50+ years of existence, the multiple series and films in the Star Trek universe have explored a different side to space and alien life than that of their contemporaries. Where Star Wars has always felt like an epic told amongst the stars, Trek was always more of a fable that gave tales of morals, levity and drama in equal bite-sized portions. For every encounter with the Borg or firefight with a Romulan Bird of Prey, there were multi-episodic stories centered around diplomatic struggles for peace or murder-mysteries from the Holodeck. In contrast to the familiarity of Star Wars’ canon and framework, Star Trek always felt like a tribute to and quest for the unknown. “Star Trek Beyond,” for its part, explores the concepts of the unknown and foreign, but largely feels like it shares more in common with a more recent sci-fi franchise than its own: “Mass Effect.” After some time ruminating, the takeaway from the film was that one could replace the Enterprise with the Normandy and Capt. Kirk with Cmdr. Shepard and leave the quality of the film largely intact, as the “Mass Effect” series largely traded in action, huge explosions and firefights as it explored the same concepts of an overmatched federation of humans and aliens fighting an overpowering threat from beyond the reaches of known space while digging deeper into how the diverse cultures and lives of individuals affected the group dynamic. Granted, while the “Mass Effect” trilogy cribs heavily from its predecessors and the argument doesn’t take away from the quality of the feature presentation, it certainly gives the impression that this was a story that could be told in Mad Libs fashion: regardless of what was filled in the blanks, "Beyond" would remain the same, action-packed piece of work.
The movie is well worth your time and money; strongly directed, never boring, easy to invest in and with great performances from its actors, but the same could be said with a different set of characters, setting and title card.
