Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

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Mike DiCenso
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Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Mike DiCenso » Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:35 am

I've finally gotten a chance to see the movie and I have to say that I'm impressed by this one. For all the fears about Justin Lin, they are largely unfounded and he did do a fairly competent job, though his "frenetic" style may turn some people off. Doug Jung Simon Pegg's script also delivers, but probably won't win too many new fans since it does seem to be geared a bit more towards the hardcore fans as it gives lots of good continuity references, some in the form of a very touching series of tributes to the late Leonard Nimoy and even manages to make it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nimoy's Spock is indeed from the Prime Timeline we all know and love. However it will probably not win over the die-hard haters of the new Trek franchise with the action scenes.

The U.S.S. Franklin is absolutely an upstaging, wonderful little starship in comparison to the much hated Alt-prise design and shows what could have been done, if Abrams had let the design folks at ILM do a proper job. Lots about the Franklin screams a loving tribute to proper TOS design and ties elements of TOS and ST:ENT together inside as well as out for a knock out continuity punch.

On the character front, aside from the Nimoy tribute, this is where I believe the movie really delivered. Like the first and second films, everyone got to do something and there are some genuine moments that really evoke TOS' Kirk-Spock-McCoy relationship, while still managing to do something new. Idris Elba as Krall works well, though he comes across as a typical Trek meanie villain at first, but then the surprise twist at the end makes him stand out as a unique and sympathetic one. The one character moment with Sulu being revealed to be gay (or bi at the least), felt a bit too forced and pandering to the out of control SJW crowd and jars with his portrayal in TOS. Sofia Boutella as Jaylah works well enough, though I found her similarities to Rey from The Force Awakens to be a bit off putting. At least she doesn't defeat Krall or even his minion with no training and uber powers, like Rey does.

From a Versus standpoint, once again we get to see just how ridiculously tough Trek starship hulls are with the Alt-prise reprising her own version of the E-D's saucer section slide out, only slamming at high speed through way more mountain peaks! This movie also continues the Alternate Timeline's trend towards bigness as Starbase Yorktown easily dwarfs even the mighty Starbase 74 and outside of the Dyson Sphere from "Relics", it is the largest space station seen in Trek.

So overall, the movie does have some flaws, but it manages to deliver and of all the J.J. produced Trek movies, it feels like Trek.
-Mike

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:13 am

The hull is very tough, but the bridge window seems very surprisingly breakable. Which is not a unique problem.

Some of the science seemed very spotty. The nebula being dense and rocky, for example.

I found it a fun watch overall, but I didn't feel like I was watching a plot spanning light-years of distance.

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Mike DiCenso » Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:41 pm

The scene with Kirk and Chekov shooting and then kicking their way out of the bridge isn't so far-fetched given what the saucer went through before even getting to that point.

The science spotty? You went to a Star Trek movie and gave a damn about that? The nebula being crowded wasn't too much of an issue since we can assume in-universe that part of it was condensing into a planet or star, thus the density. Sulu and Chekov even seem surprised by the field thinning out where where the planet eventually was. Also, I didn't mention this in the initial impression review and I should have, but I really love how the effects team with both practical sets, CGI, and practical effects, made the locations filmed at look alien with all the little plants and other lifeforms floating and buzzing about. It really at times felt alien and epic.

It was fun, but it was what it is supposed to be; more like a Star Trek story, and unlike you, I did get a feeling of everything taking place over light years, it just wasn't that important. They started even from a major forward, frontier starbase... Yorktown and go from there and most of the action is on the planet and switches back to Yorktown only at the end, but it easily felt like there was some distance involved.

Oh, and speaking of Starbase Yorktown, one behind the scenes interview states that the "space lane" armatures, like the one Alt-prise goes through, is supposed to be 17.5 miles (28 km) long. Not including the core section of the station and just doubling it would make it 35 miles or 56 km wide! When did Starfleet build this thing? After the Narada incursion? If so, that's an impressive industrial feat on top of the large starships. Does Yorktown also exist in the Prime Timeline as well? Questions, questions....
-Mike

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Fri Aug 05, 2016 2:46 pm

Based on the commentary, it seems the promotion of the movie is the worst aspect of it.
Nothing in it poked my interest; everything made me want to run far from it.
There's not a single pause or exposure of an element of the plot, what the characters may have to face. Nothing.
It was so horrible that I didn't care at all and wasn't aware of the second trailer. STB simply vanished from me scopes, y'know.

Universe-wise, it is appreciable to see the effort referencing older events from the prime timeline that precisely show how the Naranda's arrival really shook everything in this verse. At least some love and respect is shown. Including a reference about hull polarization onboard the Franklin.

And that Yorktown base is so great! But then again, it seems to be a pure action flick that gets a free pass because it's Star Trek.

When you think of it, aside from the lack of weapons, Interstellar is perhaps the best Trek movie ever.

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Fri Aug 05, 2016 4:35 pm

Mike DiCenso wrote:Oh, and speaking of Starbase Yorktown, one behind the scenes interview states that the "space lane" armatures, like the one Alt-prise goes through, is supposed to be 17.5 miles (28 km) long. Not including the core section of the station and just doubling it would make it 35 miles or 56 km wide! When did Starfleet build this thing? After the Narada incursion? If so, that's an impressive industrial feat on top of the large starships. Does Yorktown also exist in the Prime Timeline as well? Questions, questions....
-Mike
I hope the gigantism doen't increase. In fact, it should end there. Bigger ships and über stations should be extremely exceptionnal, not regular.

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Mike DiCenso » Fri Aug 05, 2016 6:00 pm

The U.S.S. Franklin is actually the first new starship we've seen in the Kelvin Timeline that is not huge. In fact, she's the opposite, about 100 or so meters long. That being said, she predates the incursion by over 100 years....
-Mike

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Praeothmin » Sun Aug 07, 2016 12:06 am

This movie sends the TOS vibe the others didn't, with the classic Spock-Kirk-McCoy character moments TOS was shock full of...
The action was well paced, the ships hella tough, the nods to older material excellent, the "treknobabble" solution worthy of TOS...
Funny how people saying Interstellar was the best non-Trek "Star Trek" film, a movie which looks more like the earlier seasons of TNG, seem to forget that Star Trek originated with "the wagon train to the stars", TOS, which was followed by the bore fest that were the first seasons of TNG (it did have some great moments, but overall, meh), and then the excellent DS9...
ST: Beyond relates more to TOS and DS9, and some later TNG, but mostly to TOS...


I loved it!

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Re: Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:26 pm

Star Trek Beyond Really is Pretty Good is a bit pushy for a movies' title though.

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