How’s this for boldly going where no one has gone before: The best character in Star Trek Beyond doesn't wear a Starfleet outfit, Bones is just as cool as Kirk and Spock, and hip-hop is used as a plot point.
Director Justin Lin’s new sci-fi voyage (**½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday) with the starship Enterprise veers off the course of J.J. Abrams’ previous two big-screen Treks in that it feels more like an expensive two-hour episode of the original TV series rather than a Star Wars-y epic. That’s not a bad thing overall — what is unfortunate is a momentum-killing middle and a main villain who fails to be interesting until a thrilling third act.
Beyond catches up with James Kirk (Chris Pine) when the Enterprise captain is in the doldrums and questioning his career trajectory three years into the ship's five-year mission. It’s difficult to feel grounded "when even the gravity is artificial,” Kirk says, lamenting the fact that things are "feeling episodic" over shots of Scotch with medical officer Bones McCoy (Karl Urban).
Their mundane daily life picks up quickly after a distress call arrives from a science team on an uncharted world. The Enterprise sets off to the rescue, only to discover it’s a trap set by a mysterious alien villain named Krall (a menacing Idris Elba).
His fleet rips up the Enterprise like space piranha, leaving Kirk’s crew scattered on this strange planet: The captain and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin) investigate the inhabitants, Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are nabbed by Krall, Bones tends to an injured Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), and Scotty (Simon Pegg) meets Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a native female warrior whose home is an abandoned Starfleet ship. (Blasting on the old sound system: Public Enemy’s Fight the Power.)
Boutella is amazing as this new heroine with quasi-tribal facial features and a pragmatic demeanor: She holds her own with Kirk but also comes with a tragic backstory. Of note, too, is Urban as Bones; his grumpy, scene-stealing nature has been seen in spurts in the two Abrams movies, but the doctor comes into his own here.
Pegg and Doug Jung’s script adds a lot of surprising humor — Kirk doesn’t have trouble with Tribbles but does get into a funny fight with some tiny Teenax. Lin showcases action chops honed on four Fast & Furious movies in the gravity-defying climax, where Krall’s origins are revealed — and none too soon, because the bad guy spends most of the film as a one-note foe devoid of Elba’s usual intimidating charms.
Star Trek Beyond doesn’t have the same vision of Abrams’ films, so it doesn’t really seem like a continuation in a sense. Yet it does recapture the exploration motif plus the emotional and social underpinnings of Star Trek past: We see Sulu embrace his husband and child in a moment that’s fleeting but touching, and Spock takes time to process the loss of Spock Prime, played by Leonard Nimoy in the previous films, as an in-movie tribute to the late Trek icon. (The film also is dedicated to Yelchin, who died last month at age 27.)
The galactic adventure might be an uneven one, but the combination of gravitas, a little mirth and old-school Trek themes makes Beyond a decently entertaining trip to the final frontier.
