Entertainment

Star Trek Beyond Review: Great for most, but extremely disappointing for Trekkies

2016-07-25 , 9:59 am

Here’s a disclaimer: I’m Trekkie who has watched every single Star Trek episode and movie at least three times, and could literally memorize some phrases used by the characters. In fact, you could say that Star Trek is my religion—in particular, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which has sort of become a guiding principle for me.

In other words, I’ve never been a fan of the rebooted Star Trek movies, as to us Trekkies, these movies are catered more for the mainstream audience: in the previous Star Trek universe, the Federation will talk and talk and talk and talk and talk before a first shot—and it was usually fired by the villain instead of the Federation.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the review for Star Trek Beyond is at a high 84% approval rating. While it is the lowest among all the rebooted Star Trek movies (Star Trek (2009) is at 95% and Star Trek Into Darkness is at 86%), it is still one heck of a result, with the hall I was in last Friday completely packed.

Unlike older Star Trek movies that are usually a hit and miss, the rebooted series seem to hit the bull’s-eye every time, and for a good reason: It is, indeed, a reasonably good action sci-fi film.

You’re never five minutes from an action scene, whether it’s Kirk kicking some butt once again or Spock firing his phaser with pinpoint accuracy while the villains missing every shot. The destruction of the Enterprise, which I’m sure you’ve already projected from the trailer, is packed with so many special effects and drama that it made the destruction of the Enterprise in previous films looks like child’s play.

And ironically, it’s the action scenes that sort of overshadow what used to make Star Trek great: the plot. Most Star Trek films or episodes make one think: they’re sometimes considered social commentaries, but in this film, much like the previous two films, decided that the new generation of audience watches Star Trek for its action, special effects and cool factor, and so decided to toss in a pretty-much plotless story into the film. You usually can’t explain the plot of a Star Trek episode or movie in one sentence, but here, you could. Easily.

But giving credit when it’s due, the action scenes are pretty cool. Older Star Trek films have characters so old that they could withdraw their CPF savings, so making William Shatner (original old Kirk) or Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard from another Star Trek series) riding a bike or doing a roundhouse kick on an alien just wouldn’t achieve the same result.

This could well be the Star Trek that does not have a strong link to the old Star Trek universe: the villain is completely new, the Kirk is very much unlike the Kirk we know from Star Trek: The Original Series and Spock once again showed his emotions, his third in three films (when we could just see two times when Spock showed his emotions in 79 episodes and 6 movies). It’s good for new Trekkies as they can digest the story easier, but definitely a big disappointment for old Trekkies.

Maybe it’s now 2016, and that with globalization, strong competition from indie films and the everlasting fight against privacy, it’s imperative that a movie has to be mainstream instead of catering to a select group of fans.

That, I totally understand and respect. I just hope that the 2017 series would be made for true-blue Trekkies, instead of yet another action-packed one.

But if you just want to relax in a cinema and watch phasers (laser beams) flying around, starships exploding and hand-to-hand combat that’s so fast you can’t even see who hit who, then this movie is for you. If you’re a diehard Trekkie, just be prepared for yet another disappointing Trek outing.

Featured image via YouTube

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

Star Trek Beyond Review: Great for most, but extremely disappointing for Trekkies

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