Star Trek: Beyond - An enjoyable little Trek

As a lifelong fan of the ‘Trek-verse’ I watched the trailer for ‘Star Trek: Beyond’ and was pretty underwhelmed.  There just didn’t seem to be anything really there that stood out.  Yes, I watched it pretty soon after the trailer for the Star Wars film ‘Rogue One’ which oozed drama and intrigue.  However, seeing as I own every other Star Trek film (yes, even the ‘odd’ numbered ones) I got this one too.

It’s written by Simon ‘Scotty’ Pegg who, interestingly enough, criticised the trailer for not accurately portraying his work and, upon seeing it, I was actually pleasantly surprised.  I suppose you have to look at it from two points of view.  It’s going to be watched by people who are die-hard fans of Trek and the casual movie-goer (for the record, I fall somewhere between the two camps).  If you’re a major fan then you’re going to get a lot more of the ‘in-jokes’ that stem from the original series and Trek-lore in general.  However, if you’re familiar with the films then you should be expecting something pretty special.  All Trek TV was – naturally – lower budget, therefore when it hit the big screen it needed to contain something really different. ‘Beyond’ only just about manages this.

Yes, it’s actually quite good fun, but there’s nothing really there to won, only entertain for a couple of hours.  Trekkies may be disappointed because they have different expectations from a Star Trek film.  However, if you’re just a casual fan of the show and/or movies in general and you’re looking for a fun, cheeky little piece to fill a couple of hours, you should find it here.  It has action, banter between the stars, some good set pieces and the obligatory romantic sub-plot.  What more could you require?

Stand-outs for me are Bones and Spock, who continually bicker like a pair of old ladies all the way through the film.  This is in keeping with their original incarnations and they really seem to thrive on it here.  Sadly, the great Idris Elba feels a bit underused as the bad guy and could have been so much more.

There’s an underlying sadness about the deaths of Leonard Nimoy and more recently Anton Yelchin which make this Trek outing a little more poignant than most, but you have to know about the off-screen history too to really notice that.

Ultimately, ‘Star Trek: Beyond’ is good fun.  It’s no ‘Wrath of Khan,’ but it’s certainly no ‘Final Frontier’ either.  And, if you don’t get that reference then I can say that if you kind of like light-hearted sci-fi/action then hopefully you’ll like this.  But, then again, I actually quite enjoyed ‘Into Darkness,’ so what do I know?

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that