Star Trek Beyond

Our country has faced its fair share of divisive issues in the past few weeks and they have all led to some pretty heated arguments both online and in person. Some strong stances have cost some people their long term friendships and in a few rare cases some people have even lost their jobs, and what’s worse is that things don’t seem to be getting any better any time soon. It all started when Paul Feig decided to manufacture this whole women empowerment movement after he realized people thought his reboot of the classic Ghostbusters franchise was the worst thing they’ve seen since Two Girls and a Cup.

I mean there’s no way in hell that a movie he made actually turned out to be humorless trash; so it has to be someone else’s fault right? So why not just label everyone who disliked his latest effort misogynistic beasts? That works! Heck I even had a close bartender friend of mine walk away and almost refuse to serve me after I told her I hated the movie; as if women needed yet another reason to hate me!

Well the dust from that storm was just starting to settle when the studios thought it would be a great idea to release Star Trek Beyond the following week! Really? We already have nerds getting into random Pokémon Go fights in our local parks, now we’re going to get the Trekkies and Star Wars dorks going at it again? This has to be the start of Armageddon! I swear if Hollywood decides to come out with a white version of Superfly starring Marky Mark, I’m throwing myself off the UT Tower that day because Black people will lose their collective minds and start tearing up every major city they’re in! But who knows, maybe Hollywood actually knows what it’s doing. They did give J.J. Abrams the keys to both the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises; this could be their way of getting the two nations to finally come together like the Bloods and Crypts did when the LAPD nearly beat Rodney King to death. I guess we’ll see.

Since J.J. took over the Star Trek world he has produced two highly entertaining yet fairly forgettable films. I loved both of them when I walked out of the theater but I honestly can’t tell you anything that happened in either one outside of little Kirk riding motorcycles in the initial reboot and Khan’s cape flowing in the space wind like Beyonce’s hair in the second one. But that doesn’t mean I’m not open to seeing them again as they certainly had some thrilling action set pieces in them.

Well with Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) co-writing and Justin Lin (Fast and Furious) directing this latest trip into the final frontier, you had to expect more of the same; a funny action packed thriller that for the most part would be a forgettable popcorn flick. But I’m happy to say that in this case that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In Star Trek Beyond, things don’t appear to be quite as hunky dory as you would expect them to be after their latest dash with death, love, and aliens in the great beyond. Instead the crew is stuck in year three of a five year mission and Captain Kirk seems to be losing his way as the days begin to run together and all of his missions appear to be focused on useless diplomatic expeditions for unruly and ungrateful extra-terrestrials. Even Spock has something that’s troubling him which has apparently led to his and Lt. Uhura’s breakup.

So their latest mission couldn’t have come at a better time as this looks to be the end of the Starship Enterprise as we know it. Well while on a brief and well deserved respite with their family and friends at a remote space station, the Federation gets a surprise visit from a desperate traveler whose ship and crew were attacked while on a scientific voyage. This ambush wasn’t your normal garden variety attack however as the perpetrators used a complex biological weapon to take them out, one that was so advanced that the Federation decides to send its best unit (Kirk and co) out to investigate. Well as luck would have it, their ship also gets attacked upon arrival and is basically blown to bits. The entire crew is required to abandon ship and take refuge on this uncharted planet. And now it’s up to Kirk to figure out what these rogue aliens really want before his entire crew is murdered and the universe is possibly destroyed.

As I mentioned earlier, since Lin is directing this latest entry into the space logs of time, you should know going in that 80% of the movie is all action. And if you’re a fan of 360 degree shaky cam action shots, then you will love this film. Heck even if you’re not you’ll still walk out thoroughly entertained. The interactions between the random pockets of stranded enterprisers are probably the second best part of the film as they add depth to the characters and explain a lot about their relationships and backgrounds. Thankfully though, the writers don’t bog the story down with long boring stares into space or each other’s eyes, they instead sandwich these brief interactions around explosions and gun fights.

The one character that almost stole the show was another stranded traveler, Jaylah. She introduces some cool technology that allows multiple holograms of herself to engage in battle while keeping her real self safe from harm. Well her and of course the head villain Krall who is played by the always steady Idris Elba. Dammit, why wasn’t I born with a British accent?

Now since it is written by Pegg, this film can be a little silly at times, like when Kirk gets the upper hand on the enemy by playing the Beastie Boys, but it’s all in good fun and it actually had me cheering from my seat. And any movie that gets me to do that has to get a rating of pretty FRESH! I suggest you check this film out before the end of the world is upon us.