Review:
A touch of humor invades 'Star Trek Beyond' by JAKE COYLE, The
Associated Press
In the previous "Star Trek" installment, Spock cried. In the latest,
"Star Trek Beyond," he laughs. And not just a little snicker, either,
but a belly-full one. What bold explorations into the farthest reaches
of the galaxy hold for Spock no one knows. A sigh? A hiccup?
"Star Trek Beyond," like most of the rebooted properties flying around
our movie theaters, delights in nostalgically resurrecting iconic
characters and tweaking them anew. The balance is a delicate one, as
seen in the pre-release debate around this film revealing Sulu (John
Cho but formerly played by LGBT icon George Takei)as gay.
The scene in question turns out to be a mere moment, lightly handled,
showing Sulu greeting his same-sex partner and their daughter after a
long mission. It's all expressed with just a few arms tenderly draped
across shoulders. And it's the kind of welcome touch that director
Justin Lin, the "Fast & Furious" veteran who takes over for J.J.
Abrams, has brought to this pleasingly episode -like installment.
The opening scene, fittingly, plays with a smaller scale. Captain Kirk
(Chris Pine), on a diplomatic mission, appeals to a snarling beast
looming above him in a crowded amphitheater. Enraged at Kirk's offer,
the alien beast hurtles down upon him, only to turn out to be no more
monstrous than a feisty bulldog.
The film finds a bored Enterprise finishing up a five-year tour in deep
space.
The (albeit brief) change of pace is immediately appreciated. The last
two beefed-up "Star Trek" movies, as if overcompensating for decades of
Trekkie nerd-dome, threatened to make the once brainy "Star Trek" less
distinct from other mega-sized sci-fi adventures ù just another
clothesline of CGI set pieces strung together.
Like its recent predecessors, "Star Trek Beyond" is mostly an
assortment of effects-heavy scenes with bits of talking in between. But
unlike the previous film, 2013's bloated "Star Trek Into Darkness," not everything is quite so much of a life-and-death issue (the exhausting
de facto pitch of today's summer blockbuster).
The Starship Enterprise, led by Captain Kirk (Chris Pine, looking more
natural in the role), is lured through a nebula where a would-be rescue
mission turns
into a trap set by the villain Krall, whose spectacular army of
mechanical drones ("bees" he calls them) attack in an overwhelming
swarm. In a galactic blitz, the Enterprise is torn to shreds and
crashes down on a rocky planet where the ship's scattered crew tries to
gather, survive and understand Krall's motives. A local becomes an
essential guide for them: Jaylah (a nimble Sofia Boutella), a pale
loner with black streaks running down her face who helps the crew
discover the Federation's history on the planet.
The backstory, though, never quite gets filled out, and the plot serves
as little more than a mechanism to test the efficient camaraderie of
the Enterprise crew. Among them: Zoe Saldana's Uhura, Simon Pegg's
Scotty, Karl Urban's Bones and Chekov, played by the late Anton
Yelchin, a fine actor who's disappointing underused here. They're an entertaining enough bunch meandering around, and screenwriters Doug
Jung and Pegg (who, as the writer of "Spaced, knows plenty about the intersection of comedy and science fiction) have injected some humor to
the proceedings.
The heart of the film, though, like the previous two, is the bromance
between Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock. They're Felix and Oscar in
outer space, and still the highlight of this batch of "Star Trek" films.
It's only late in the film that the alien mask is pulled away revealing
the actor underneath Krall: Idris Elba. For those who didn't place his
baritone earlier, the reveal comes as a disappointment. It should be a
crime in deep space, as it is on Earth, to shroud such a tremendous
force behind mountains of extraterrestrial makeup. But I suppose had
Elba been an unadorned baddie all along, the Enterprise might really
have finally met its match.
"Star Trek Beyond," a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the
Motion Picture Association of America for "sequences of sci-fi action
and violence." Running time: 122 minutes. Two and a half stars out of
four.
Al Kaiser n1api@cox.net <=-
.!. There's nothing like addressing a room full of pointy eared blowhards!
That's all for now!
Al Kaiser - Meriden, CT, 18-Jul-2016 at 15:32. Fido : 1:142/926 -
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