 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** From Director Justin Lin and Producer J.J. Abrams comes one of the best-reviewed action movies of the year. Dispatched on a rescue mission to the farthest reaches of space, the USS Enterprise is ambushed by Krall, a ruthless enemy sworn against the Federation. Crash-landing on an uncharted hostile world, Captain Kirk, Spock and the crew are separated with no means of escape. Only Jaylah, a rebellious alien warrior, can help them reunite and find a way off the planet in a race against time to stop Krall's deadly army from triggering all-out galactic war. Storyline: Day 966 in the USS Enterprise's five year mission takes them into new uncharted territory. There, the Enterprise is nearly destroyed and strands Kirk and his crew on a remote planet with no means of communication. Kirk must then work with the elements to reunite his crew and get back to save the Starbase Yorktown. Written by trekkiebabs Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, October 24, 2016 It was with anticipation and curiosity that Star Trek fans viewed Star Trek Beyond, the first of the new reboot films not to be directed by J.J. Abrams. It was also met with heavy hearts; the film's premiere was darkened by the passing of both Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, the former a bonafide legend in the Star Trek community and the latter an up-and-coming superstar whose comic-bend portrayal of Chekov earned him high praise in all three reboot Trek films. For Star Trek Beyond, J.J. Abrams, busy with Star Wars and ready to inject fresh blood into the Star Trek universe, blessed the arrival of Justin Lin of Fast & Furious fame to take the reigns for Beyond. Even as this film lacks the brilliance of the Abrams films, it's very much in that same style (albeit with fewer lens flares), packed with exhilarating action, and as with the other two reboot films, it features plenty of innovation alongside a number of recognizable plot drivers and character themes that keep the movie grounded in lore but adventurous in its own right. It's a total blast, a bit empty on the dramatic side the scale but certainly a film that epitomizes the popcorn-munching good time sort of Star Trek that might not be entirely true to the Roddenberry roots but that fits nicely enough within the rebooted universe and Trek canon. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), three years into his five-year mission, has begun reflecting on his life and purpose in space. He's keen on earning a promotion to Admiral, which will take him out of the Captain's chair and place him in charge of an advanced star base. When the Enterprise is ordered to investigate a mysterious nebula -- she's the only ship capable of maneuvering through it -- she comes under attack from a relentless and deadly alien race bent on taking the crew and recovering an alien artifact in the Enterprise's possession. With the crew separated and the villains' true intentions only slowly coming to light, their mission becomes a fight for survival that could result in countless dead as a chapter of Federation history slowly rewrites itself. Beyond is a stylistic success that promotes action -- and endless streams thereof -- over substance, of which there is more than a little, but less than a lot. The film is very big and thrives on a sense of great sphere-of-action scope. It also borrows heavily from other films in the Star Trek universe while still doing enough to mold an identity for itself. Star Trek Beyond takes a lot of ideas from The Wrath of Khan that didn't make it into Star Trek Into Darkness -- a dense, unnavigable nebula that renders the Enterprise out of contract with the outside universe; themes of age centered around Kirk's birthday (which lacks the dramatic impact here it had on Star Trek II because this Kirk is still a young pup in comparison to his parallel); and whether Kirk can handle promotion to Admiral, which would take him out of the Captain's chair -- and works them all into this film, in smaller ways, really, that usually feel more forced than organic but that do try hard to reinforce various plot points and thematic angles that run through the film. That's not all. A major turning point is reminiscent of a similar sequence in Generations, while the film's villain seems a hodgepodge of Nero, the reboot's Khan, The Borg, and the villains from Insurrection. The star base, on the other hand, is entirely reimagined for the film and plays more of central role in Beyond than it has in any other iteration of Star Trek but, while it looks great and flows with the movie very well, it feels almost indistinguishable to the future San Francisco seen in Into Darkness, which makes this movie's climax feel more familiar than unique. Beyond is nothing if it's not derivative, then, creatively derivative yet very fun. And while it works, one cannot help but feel that the emphasis on spit and polish over story and themes -- even as the film boldly efforts to the contrary -- leaves Star Trek just looking more like a popcorn film than serious Sci-Fi. Fortunately, the kinetic energy and relentless action are enough to keep the movie going. Visual effects are stellar, though much of them are so dependent on density and speed of movement that there doesn't need to be much detail for them to shine. It's in the bigger moments, however, that the film's special effects dominate. Lin's Trek thrives on a big scope and sense of scale (which the movie plays with from its opening sequence forward) and always allows its forward momentum to carry it through any lapse of dramatic import, empty character moments, or a villain who takes too long to develop but gradually builds into an enticingly layered character. If much of that sounds negative, it is. But Beyond manages to mask its shortcomings remarkably well. It's tailored to its strengths, does a commendable job of putting its weaknesses on the back burner, and the audience will never feel betrayed by the end product, warts and inability to walk that fine line between "fan service" and "homage" and "thievery" included. Star Trek Beyond doesn't have a lot of meat on its bones, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. While it's not exactly hearkening back to the heyday of the Roddenberry era and the series' roots, it finds enough high energy action made of high concept imagination and regurgitated yet nicely blended and balanced ideas to carry the film through its flaws. This is modern Star Trek at its most slick and shiny. It lacks the wow and soul of the Abrams films, even as it's very similar from a stylistic perspective, but performances are solid and the visual effects are seamless. For two hours of Star Trek fun, it doesn't get much better than this. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Star Trek Beyond features upper-tier video and audio to go along with a nice allotment of extra content. Highly recommended. [CSW] -2.2-If you're looking for an action and CGI flick you can probably half way enjoy this movie. However, the movie misses the mark on the story line, crew chemistry and witty banter that the Star Trek franchise is famous for. Despite all of the action it was a disappointment because the action just felt flat. The main problem was with the director. From the very first fight scene you couldn't make out who was hitting who or where the characters even were. In the big CGI space battles you don't have a clue what's happening. It's a chaotic cacophony of light and sound where he arbitrarily suspended the laws of physics and oxygen breathing humans and aliens run and fight in corridors with hull breaches into the vacuum of space. Then there is the idiotic screenplay where "stuff happens" with no explanation. How did the villain, a starship captain, turn into this monster and amass a "hive army" on a deserted planet? What was so different about the alien weapon from his regular unstoppable and deadly army? How could that female alien have those cool non-Federation weapons when she barely escaped the prison camp and was hiding out on a one-hundred year old Federation ship? The list of stupid goes on and on. "The difference between amateur and professional is details." Too many of the details were missing which leaves you with a hollow feeling throughout the movie that things just aren't quite right. [V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box Cast Notes: Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Commander Spock), Karl Urban (Doctor 'Bones' McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Lieutenant Uhura), Simon Pegg (Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Idris Elba (Krall), Sofia Boutella (Jaylah), Joe Taslim (Manas), Lydia Wilson (Kalara), Deep Roy (Keenser), Melissa Roxburgh (Ensign Syl), Anita Brown (Tyvanna), Doug Jung (Ben). IMDb Rating (02/11/18): 7.9/10 from 97,599 users IMDb Rating (11/20/17): 7.9/10 from 96,547 users IMDb Rating (01/03/15): 8.0/10 from 76,393 users
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
