A Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond. The USS Enterprise arrives at a space station that is home to thousands of people. They are there for some downtime. During their time there, an escape pod arrives with a single survivor. The USS Enterprise is sent to rescue what might remain of the crew. They go through a dangerous nebula and after exiting it arrive at a planet. Unfortunately, they've been set up. They are attacked, led by an individual named Krall (Ibris Elba). The USS Enterprise is destroyed, crashing on the planet.

Krall's goal is to capture a weapon that was stored on the USS Enterprise -- we learn about this weapon at the very start of the movie.

The movie rushes forward as our USS Enterprise crew attempt to stop Krall from using the weapon. Along the way, we get to bump into Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a cool character that we hopefully get to see again should additional Star Trek movies get made.

What's my opinion of the movie? I'm so-so on it. First, the weapon. Okay, it is a scary weapon when used against individuals. However, I never got the sense that it was some scary weapon like a nuclear bomb. Kill Krall and there goes the weapon, right? Or once started, did the weapon continue to expand. Of course, in that case, isn't Krall condemning himself to doom? If anything, I think Krall should have just continued to live forever -- as was one of the advantages -- and build up some major force. I suppose that was his end goal, but why go so aggressive. He seemed to show his hand before he had sufficient strength.

Second, do Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine have issues with each other? Commander Spock and Captain James T. Kirk are supposed to be great friends. Yet, I felt like McCoy (Karl Urban) had a better relationship with Kirk. Also, I think McCoy had more screen time with Spock versus Spock and Kirk sharing screen time.

What makes it cool: as mentioned, Jaylah is a awesome character. The movie does keep your attention even if I felt the weapon in play didn't create major fear.