Star Trek Beyond!

I am an unabashed fan of the new Star Trek movies, feeling unlike some of my generation that the veneration many have for the original series was trapping the movies in too much cloying nostalgia and not enough rockem' sockem' action. Well, they scraped off the barnacles off the old Enterprise when they rebooted the series in 2009 and gave us a whopper of a sequel in 2014 and now with Star Trek Beyond we get a really dandy up-scaled adventure which makes all the set up pay off a bit.

The Enterprise is in deep space and the captain of her is suffering a deep ennui as the endless mission seems to be dragging him down. But that all comes to an end when the crew is led into a trap in a distant nebula by a proper villain who wants to use his bee-like army to destroy the Federation. Idris Elba is the main villain, and we learn by the end that he's more human than he appears. It's a nifty secret but not one they really seem all that interested in pursuing during the movie so when it pays off it lacks some punch. The untimely death of Anton Yelchin did cast a bit of a pall on the viewing. The new girl, a rough and tumble scrounger type who is hiding from the villains who killed her family is charming and beautiful, a comely addition to the proceedings. 

I wanted to enjoy this one and I did despite some minor misgivings about pacing and some background information. I appreciated how the filmmakers kept trying to find new ways for fans to appreciate the rigors and fun of space travel though it didn't always work.

In the end we have charming people in a charming story doing charming stuff. I came, I saw and I cared enough. Pretty decent overall.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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