Film Review: Star Trek Beyond

Director Justin Lin's entry into the rebooted Final Frontier is neither as much pure fun as Star Trek, nor as overtly political as Star Trek Into Darkness. It's a blend of both movies which somehow comes closest yet to capturing the intimate and inclusive spirit of the Original Series.

(WARNING! SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW! CONTINUE READING AT YOUR DISCRETION / PERIL!)

Star Trek Beyond (hereafter Beyond) has both an incredible opportunity and incredible challenge.

Star Trek Into Darkness left the crew of the Enterprise heading out on their 5-year mission into deep space. Thus, the opportunity for director Justin Lin and co-writers Simon Pegg & Doug Jung to paint on a very broad canvas, expand the universe of the reboot series, and go in a completely new direction. On the other hand, J.J. Abrams and his writers: Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman didn't leave any particular plot threads for the new creative powers to follow or expand upon - hence the challenge.

Furthermore, whatever you may think of Into Darkness (I think there's more to like than most), it was a movie which deeply divided Star Trek fans - many insist it's the worst Star Trek film made.

Abrams moved on (he returns here as a producer) to help Disney with maximizing their investment in Lucasfilm. Paramount, back to the days when Star Wars first defined what a blockbuster truly was, has always thought (or hoped) Star Trek could have a similar degree of financial success.

There's also the whole 50th anniversary of Star Trek business this year, not to mention CBS re-launching a new TV series called Star Trek: Discovery in January.

Therefore, there's no small amount of pressure on the shoulders of Lin, Pegg & Jung to come up with a film which can re-invigorate the fanbase while still appealing to a mass audience.

It's my pleasure to say Lin and company mostly succeed. Beyond isn't a masterpiece, but it is a well-made Star Trek film which grows the franchise and characters, carries some encoded political commentary, and still presents the optimistic humanism the series was always known and loved for.

Much more to follow after the jump:

What Lies Beyond?

The Enterprise is 966 days into its 5 year mission.

The movie opens with Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) unable to successfully broker an agreement with a new alien race - they reject the artifact offered by Kirk on behalf of another race. Kirk, worn out, returns to the Enterprise and turns the artifact over to Spock (Zachary Quinto) to be archived.

The Enterprise then heads for new Starbase Yorktown, perched near an unexplored nebula on the edge of Federation territory, for some replenishment and shore leave. Kirk's log entry hints at the sense of becoming lost during this 5 year mission - the excitement shown for the mission in Into Darkness has evaporated into the mundane grind of space travel. All of the Enterpise's first contacts have started blending together, the crew's interpersonal relationships are showing some signs of both being too relaxed and also strained, and Kirk doubts his motivations for remaining captain.

Once at Starbase Yorktown, Sulu (John Cho) is reunited with his daughter and partner (co-writer Doug Jung), while Spock is notified of the passing of Ambassador Spock (the late Leonard Nimoy). This, combined with the recent end of his relationship with Uhura (Zoe Saldana), causes Spock to decide the time for him to return to New Vulcan has arrived. Meanwhile, Kirk and Commodore Paris (Shohreh Aghdashloo) discuss his application to become a Vice-Admiral in command of Starbase Yorktown.

Before Kirk and Spock can make their departures official, an alien named Kalara (Lydia Wilson) emerges in an escape pod from the nearby nebula, claiming her crew is stranded, and requests Federation assistance in retrieving them. The Enterprise is dispatched to aid in the rescue effort and passes through the nebula to an uncharted planet. Upon reaching the planet, named Altamid, the Enterprise encounters a fleet of small ships piloted by drones which operate like a beehive. This fleet is commanded by an alien named Krall (Idris Elba), and it tears the Enterprise to shreds in his search for the artifact stored in the Enterprise's archives.

The Enterprise crew, forced to abandon ship, are captured by the drones and taken to Altamid. Over the course of the film, Kirk and his senior officers must enlist the help of an alien woman named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) to save the surviving Enterprise crew and stop Krall from launching an assault against Starbase Yorktown. Along the way, we learn a lot more about the nature of the alien artifact Krall wanted, and about the nature of Krall himself.

Technology Unchained - A Beautiful and Terrible Thing

The late Gene Roddenberry espoused a theory of "Technology Unchained." The essence of Roddenberry's idea and hope was that man would survive his immaturity long enough to use technology to solve the age-old problems facing mankind such as hunger, poverty, and conflict.

I'm going to say it flat-out: No iteration of Star Trek has ever succeeded as completely as Starbase Yorktown in expressing what Roddenberry's vision looks and feels like.

Starbase Yorktown looks like a "snow globe in space" (as McCoy calls it early in the film), featuring bands of cityscapes which are configured like a pretzel all built around a central core and contained within a sphere which maintains a breathable atmosphere. Each band of cityscape carries a gravitational field, which allows someone looking up at a different section of the station to essentially look down at its structures and inhabitants. It looks like something M.C. Escher might have come up with after watching 2001: A Space Odyssey on a potently lovely MDMA trip.

Further, in visualizing this city in space, Lin always shows crowds which are composed of a diverse group of humans and non-humans, humans of both sexes, humans of different races, and humans of different sexualities - as noted earlier in Sulu's case.

Starbase Yorktown, parked on the edge of explored space, is the Federation showing the rest of the galaxy, symbolically and literally, what they represent. It's a beautiful and stunning vision of the future - my hat's off to Lin, Pegg & Jung and Production Designer Tom Sanders for executing it.

In contrast, we have the drone fleet which has been commandeered by Krall.

This drone fleet contains no actual life forms. Multiple times in the film, the characters refer to the attacking drones as "bees." As a reference, bees are known to attack in a swarm to defend their hive and show no concern for their safety - they will sacrifice themselves by the hundreds to defend their hive if necessary.

The drones in Beyond, however, are not used to defend the planet Altamid, or Krall's race (for reasons that become obvious as the story plays out). Instead of being used for their intended purpose by the alien civilization which created them before disappearing - drilling tunnels - they are used by Krall to destroy starships and capture their crews for him to harvest.

How these opposing sides (the Federation and Krall) use the unchained technology at their disposal is a direct reflection of their worldview.

It's not considered anything special to destroy a starship in Star Trek anymore, as this was done to the original Enterprise in The Search for Spock and the Enterprise-D in Generations. What's different in Beyond is that at no time in Star Trek has the Enterprise seemed so vulnerable to an opponent. Spock says as much at the outset of the attack, saying something to effect that the Enterprise is not equipped to fight an enemy of this type.

For this Star Trek fan, the effect is devastating.

It's deeply upsetting to watch these swarming drones (which you don't realize are drones at the time) moving through space like a school of fish and then destroying themselves as they drill into and through parts of the Enterprise.

Further, the method by which they destroy is Enterprise is sadistic - like watching someone being tortured to death. First, the deflector dish is obliterated, then the warp nacelles are severed at the base of the supporting pylons, which makes it impossible for the ship to defend itself or warp to safety. Scotty succeeds briefly in restoring power, and the Enterprise attempts to escape on impulse.

Krall's command to the drones to "Cut her neck" is a visceral counter command, and watching the swam bore through the neck of the Enterprise, separating the secondary hull from the primary hull is again visually upsetting as well as symbolically significant.

The idea behind destroying the ship, according to Lin, is to destroy the thing which physically keeps the crew together. Furthermore, it's a strong visualization of Krall's hatred of what the Federation stands for: by tearing the Enterprise apart, he is tearing the crew apart and actively challenging the Federation's ideal of harmonious multicultural people working together to solve common problems.

This Is Where the Frontier Pushes Back - Tradition versus Progress

Star Trek Beyond is about the idea that Mankind himself is the final frontier. Overcoming our prejudices, adapting to new conditions and growing through teamwork and selflessness is the key to mankind's future. In such a story, it's logical that the nature of the enemy the Enterprise encounters is one of a man who has failed in that regard.

Krall is revealed over the course of Beyond to be a former starship captain, Balthazar Edison. As we learn late in the film, Edison was a former MACO (Military Assault Command Operations) solider fighting to defend Earth and its allies against the Romulans (as well as others). Following the formation of the United Federation of Planets, MACO was disbanded and Edison was left without a war to fight.

Edison's belief - gained through decades fighting as a soldier - was that humanity could only be saved through war and combat and the resultant toughness and discipline required to attain victory. Peace could only be obtained through pain and sacrifice, and must be vigilantly defended. That value system had no immediate application within the Federation, now committed to "breaking bread with their enemies" and working out their differences in a diplomatic manner instead of imposition through force.

Edison was given command of the starship Franklin - transparently an attempt by the Federation to put him out to pasture. The Franklin and its crew were presumed lost after crash-landing on Altamid, where Edison and his remaining crewmen discovered an alien technology which prolonged their lives by stealing energy from other living beings. They also discovered a drone workforce suitable for drilling caverns, and part of a terrible biological weapon which dissolves living things.

Over the decades, as Edison remained alive by taking the energy (and physical characteristics) of other aliens, he became Krall - a symbol of how older, unyielding people often sacrifice the young and/or less fortunate so that they may maintain their power and privilege.

When Krall tells Uhura that "this is where the Frontier pushes back", he's explicitly telling her that he believes he was shunted to the margins of society for the sake of "progress." Further, Krall fully intends to re-assert dominance over a belief system and society which no longer caters to him and his beliefs / experience. And (regrettably) yes, it's a form of revenge.

In many ways, Krall/Edison is a reflection of other characters we've seen in Star Trek history. That group notably includes Prime Captain Kirk and General Chang in The Undiscovered Country, as well as Captain Maxwell in TNG's The Wounded. Men whose life experience prepares them for one set of expectations, and who must adjust to a dramatically different situation which does not conform to their expectations. Prime Kirk is successful in transitioning. Edison, Chang, and Maxwell are not.

This is why Edison / Krall's attack on Starbase Yorktown is such a critical element of the film, and why his attack against the Enterprise is so devastating.

Let Me Do It!

When I first reviewed Star Trek, one of the criticisms I offered was this:

The core of Star Trek is that its about the vacuum created by the loss (or withholding) of paternal love and guidance, and how we replace that love with the families we make for ourselves, but it's not developed well enough to make it emotionally resonant. If fully developed, this would have tied Star Trek even closer to the best moments in the Original Series, and many scenes in the first six films.

Over the course of Into Darkness, and Beyond, it's pretty evident "family" is the true theme which unites these films.

In the case of willingness to sacrifice, we get to see people beyond Kirk making those choices. Uhura leaves the bridge to assist Kirk with separating the saucer section and giving the Enterprise crew still in the saucer section a chance to survive. McCoy (Karl Urban) refuses to leave a wounded Spock behind, and even joins Spock twice on difficult away missions. There's even an instance of regular crew members being willing to sacrifice for each other; Ensign Syl intervenes to save Sulu's life at the prison camp, and it ends up costing her life.

Chris Pine has grown into to the role of Kirk so effortlessly that for the first time, I don't question him as a Captain. His Kirk is finally a seasoned leader, having fully absorbed the lessons learned in both Star Trek and Into Darkness. There's no doubt about his willingness to sacrifice for his crew, as his struggle with Krall indicates when trying to separate the saucer section, or acting as a distraction so that his crew can be rescued from the prison camp. What's also fun is that he carries himself with relaxed authority, as when he nods at a crewman in the hallway and at the toast at the end of the film.

There's also room (finally) for Pine to show us how clever Kirk is. Twice in this movie, he's able to outwit an opponent. In one instance, he tricks Krall into believing he has the artifact, when in fact he's hidden it with a crew member. Later, he tricks Kalara into revealing the location of Krall's prison camp.

In the case of Quinto's Spock, what we're seeing is a fundamentally different evolution of the character. In the Original Series and the films, Spock had to attempt to purge all emotion, then die and be reborn before he could begin to appreciate what it means to be human.  In the reboot films, this Spock has endured the destruction of his home planet, the death of his mother, the (temporary) death of Kirk, and now the death of Spock Prime. Quinto is very smart at showing how much harder it is for this younger version of Spock - comparable to the smiling, loud Vulcan we saw in the The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before, to be honest - to contain all of the riling emotions hiding under the skin. Thus, for me, his emotional outbursts (tears, laughing) while near death ring completely true.

This is why it's so wonderful to see Quinto spend so much time with Karl Urban's McCoy. Urban has always been the closest actor in these films to straight impersonation, and he sometimes rides the line up to the edge of parody. What makes McCoy so much more fun and interesting in this film is that Urban allows the affection to flow freely through the insults and banter - emotionally he's almost like a big brother goading Spock out of his emotional closet during their time stranded on the planet, or an older brother helping to keep Kirk grounded early in the film.

However, the most important character (symbolically speaking) is Jaylah. She's an alien stranded on Altamid by Krall and whose family is dead. Smart and resourceful, she located the wreck of the Franklin and began making repairs, teaching herself English using the Franklin's logs, manuals, and equipment. She's also using modified parts from other wrecked ships which have been stranded. Her scenes with Scotty (Simon Pegg) are playful, but also instructive.

Jaylah could easily serve as an example of Krall's idea that unity is weakness - just consider how far she's come on her own. When she meets Scotty, she instantly realizes (by his speaking English and his explanation of his emblem) that he's exactly who she needs to escape. But instead of forcing Scotty to bend to her needs - when she clearly has the motivation and the means to do so - Jaylah immediately compromises and agrees to help him in exchange for helping her repair the Franklin. Kirk pays off her early investment in Scotty by saving her later during the prison breakout of the Enterprise crew.

In turn, she pays it forward again helping the crew set-up Sabotage by the Beastie Boys - the music serves to disorient and destroy the drones during their attack on Starbase Yorktown. In return, Kirk pulls strings to help her gain admittance to Starfleet Academy.

It's a definitive example of Star Trek's family ethos and multi-cultural unity being a major factor in success, not a weakness to be destroyed and overcome (I'd like to add that Sofia Boutella is terrific in the role. And as a bonus, there's little to nothing sexist about her role, presentation, or performance).

Finally, the point against Krall is made through the actions of the Enterprise crew. Each of them has a significant role to play in overcoming the odds. Their unity is not weakness, as Krall believes, but is in fact the only reason they survive the encounter. Here's Kirk's key statement to Krall near the end:

"I would rather die saving lives than live with taking them."

That's as classic Star Trek as it gets.

You Really Want To Go Back Out There?

Now it's time for the nitpicks, questions, and additional thoughts.

The backstory of Krall/Edison is a tremendous missed opportunity, and the biggest problem holding Beyond back from being truly great:

• At the end of the day, it's still a revenge story. Stop with villains out for revenge stories.
• Idris Elba is too talented and expressive an actor to spend 4/5ths of his screen time in heavy makeup. Period.
• By dispensing Krall's true identity as Captain Edison in bits and pieces of exposition, it's not immediately obvious how he came to be where he was. 
• The vast majority of people in the audience have never seen Star Trek: Enterprise, and thus the significance of his military service passes right over their heads.
• Instead of the amusingly silly opening sequence, Beyond could've opened with the crash-landing of the Franklin on Altamid, and spent time fleshing out his character (similar to the prologue of The Return of the King which shows how Smeagol becomes Gollum). In exchange for losing the late reveal, the trade-off is a three-dimensional villain with clearly defined motivations. It would have been made the ending much more potent when Kirk confronts Edison, and sees some of what he was feeling early in the film directly across from him.
• The exposition is sparsely provided, and most of the information sails right past the audience and leads to confusion - though a second viewing mostly cleared up my plotting questions.

There are other aliens stranded on Altamid (among them are the ones Jaylah fights when she first meets Scotty). Spock remarks on the sparse population of the planet before the Enterprise is destroyed. Why is no mention made of attempting to rescue them at the end of the film?

Part of the reason the film seems much more like a classic (albeit expanded) Star Trek episode is the smaller scale of the story. This film feels more intimate than its predecessors, mostly because we're not hopping backwards and forward decades at a time, or from Earth to Kronos, and back to Earth with side stops to San Francisco, London, and Jupiter.

I'm not going to wade into the whole debate about Sulu being gay. I understand why George Takei would feel strongly about it. I also understand what the filmmakers were attempting to accomplish. Personally, I'm fine with it.

I really appreciated Justin Lin's special effects choices which accentuated the scale of the Enterprise to her crew. Multiple times, you see images which show crewmen walking past windows or looking at the ship from Starbase Yorktown. It's the first time in the reboot films where I felt like the Enterprise itself was treated as a character, and it's therefore even more affecting when she's destroyed. I also really liked the new warp drive imagery - it doesn't look too much like the hyperdrive effect from Star Wars.

The quiet tribute when Spock opened the picture showing the original cast from The Final Frontier was a lovely moment. It worked both on the level of the character being reminded of what Ambassador Spock told him at the end of Star Trek, and a touching reminder of the passing of Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and James Doohan.

There are numerous moments which serve as callbacks to the Original Series and movies, without being explicit replays of iconic scenes (as did the engine room sequence in Into Darkness). Here are a few examples:

• Kirk and McCoy talking over drinks recalls moments where McCoy has helped Kirk through tough moments, like Balance of Terror, The Ultimate Computer, and The Wrath of Khan.
• Kirk's log entry in the nebula repeats a great and famous line: "There's no such thing as the unknown, only things temporarily hidden." This is a direct and appropriate (in plot and theme) nod from The Corbomite Maneuver.
• The opening with the worn-down crew is a nice echo of the beginning of The Immunity Syndrome.
• The crew working together to get a damaged hulk flying again recalls The Doomsday Machine.
• Putting Spock and McCoy together recalls their great scene in Bread and Circuses.
• Loved the "Green Hand" joke both in the text and in the closing credit sequence as a tribute to Who Mourns for Adonais.

We finally avoided mass casualties. In Star Trek, it was Vulcan. In Into Darkness, it was San Francisco. I feel like Beyond made a point of not using mass destruction as a WOW! moment. The destruction of the drones served nicely without relying on death, and the chase through Starbase Yorktown clearly limited casualties without sacrificing excitement or visual splendor.

Last but not least, the terrible passing of Anton Yelchin. Yelchin was such a open and cheerful presence as Chekov - even if the movies hadn't really given him much to do. The editing at the end of the film when Kirk toasts to absent friends, followed by a shot of Yelchin as Chekov was crushing. He is going to be missed.

Boldly Going Forward

Star Trek had so much fun, it forgot to have any real thoughts on its mind. Star Trek Into Darkness was so preoccupied with making a big statement that it failed to develop a coherent plot.

For my money, Star Trek Beyond is the best of the reboot films. Its intimacy and combination of action, humor, and political commentary are better balanced than they were in either of the previous films.

Further, Beyond does a better job with fan service than Into Darkness did, with non-intrusive callbacks which allowed the characters to make the moments their own.

The next Star Trek film has already been greenlit, and it supposedly involves the return of Chris Hemsworth's George Kirk from the opening moments of Star Trek.

Hopefully, in terms of growing the characters, avoiding bombastic excess, and streamlining the plot, the filmmakers will look at Star Trek Beyond as a template for future success.

Author's Note:  All screenshots are taken from trailers for Star Trek Beyond. They remain the property of Paramount Pictures and may not be re-used in any other form. The author receives no money from this blog, and is intended only for educational / discussion purposes.