Star Trek Beyond is a rip-roaring, action-packed adventure blockbuster, sporting dizzying camera movement. The vibrating shakey-cam style paired with quick cuts came at you fast and furious and made the action difficult to follow at times. The quiet Trek moments of reflection and problem-solving were short or non-existent. And I missed the humorous short-hand of character interactions that made the previous installments so quirky and character-driven. The villainous army operates much like the “cloud” in Stanislaw Lem’s The Invincible—the many moving as one—but ultimately their motivations for hating the good guys fell short of substance. I can’t deny the sheer awesomeness of Starbase Yorktown, though. That is one cool space station.
Star Trek Beyond: directed by Justin Lin; screenplay by Simon Peg and Doug Jung; starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, and Sofia Boutella.
ReviewBits: a bite-sized cinema, book, or television review. Write one and submit.
Get Armistice for FREE:
One book per person. $3.99 value.
- 20 Hard-Hitting Stories
- 4 High-Powered Authors
- 1 Shared World
- And No Spandex
- You're welcome
M. J. Kelley