My Review of "Star Trek Beyond"

Star Trek Beyond came out back in 2016. I remember seeing this in theatres thinking that it was a good movie but nothing I'd write home about. Now here I am writing home about it. Well I did review every other Star Trek movie there is so I had of finish it all off. Maybe I'd have a different opinion on this movie 6 years later?

The movie starts off with what seems like a trial. Kirk is at the center of attention of course but he's actually on a diplomacy trip. Here he's offering a gift of friendship and of course everything goes wrong. What's funny about it is that they played around with perspectives and made it look like these ferocious aliens were judging him but really they were like mean looking cats.

The first half of this movie plays out in a very fun way. A lot of time has passed since the last movie and the crew has really gelled. The problem is that everything is feeling very episodic to Kirk. I thought this was very clever and the show being very aware of itself.

Both Kirk and Spock are looking to move on to bigger and better things. The problem for them is that they don't really know what is bigger and better. They're in space for crying out loud, what could be more mysterious? In this movie they really explore their curiosities in what they want in their careers.

This movie really picks up when they're asked to investigate some mysterious area of space. They quickly discover that this was not exactly the rescue mission they thought it was. Instead it's in fact a trap and their opponent really gets the best of them. Now it's up to the crew to figure a way out of it and defeat the big bad guy before time is up. Your usual action movie affair.

The movie switches things up by changing up the partnering up of characters. I like that they mixed Bones and Spock together. The two bring up a hilarious dynamic that keeps the movie going. Sulu and Ohura have more of a prominent role in this movie which was nice to see. Scotty, Kirk and Chekov have the main meat of the movie.

For the most part everything about this movie works. I found the pacing of the movie was right on point and the big action sequences are really well done as well. Even the chemistry between the characters and the charisma of the characters was great.

The problem for me is that it felt kind of ho hum. That's not a terrible thing though as this felt more like a TV show then a movie. This goes especially if you compare this movie with the previous movie Star Trek: Into Darkness. There is a noticeable downgrade in production value in this movie than the previous movie. We no longer have the IMAX scenes to make the scene a lot bigger. It felt a little more low budget when I saw it in 4k compared to the last movie.

Although this movie does have some grand scenes it doesn't really compare to the grandiose epic scenes of the previous movie. So it definitely felt like a downgrade from the previous movie. Story-wise it was pretty good though and I really had no faults to any of it.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty entertaining movie. There are a ton of call backs to the previous movies and homages to previous entries to the franchise. What really matters is if this movie is fun and I would have to say yes. That's why I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It's especially a great time if you're a fan. I really hope they somehow pull out another movie but who knows.