{"id":20080,"date":"2016-08-20T17:38:11","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T07:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=20080"},"modified":"2016-08-20T17:38:11","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T07:38:11","slug":"star-trek-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=20080","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"startrekbeyondposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>Justin Lin
\nWriters: \u00a0<\/strong>Simon Pegg, Doug Jung
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Harold Cho, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin<\/p>\n

A<\/span>fter JJ Abram’s successful reboot of\u00a0Star Trek<\/em> as a film franchise in 2009, I was left feeling flat by it’s successor\u00a0Star Trek Into Darkness, <\/em>a film that\u00a0became too focused on action and spectacle for my liking. \u00a0On its own merits its a perfectly serviceable blockbuster but as part of a well established sci-fi series, I thought it veered too far away from what makes Star Trek Star Trek<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When I think back to the best traits\u00a0of Gene Roddenberry’s original series, I think of its emphasis on space exploration, comradery between different cultures and a storytelling style that was more cerebral than driven by violence. \u00a0By comparison,\u00a0Star Trek Into Darkness\u00a0<\/em> was a film that concluded with Spock chasing down Khan whilst screaming at the top of his lungs and then belting him in the face repeatedly in a fist fight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I didn’t really know what to make of\u00a0Star Trek Beyond<\/em> at first. \u00a0I was cautiously optimistic when I heard that Simon Pegg was handling the screenplay but those first trailers which edited the film to look like ‘Fast and Furious<\/em> in space’, left me feeling a bit dubious.<\/p>\n

Star Trek Beyond<\/em>\u00a0begins with a listless Captain Kirk, who is three years into his five year space exploration mission, wondering what his purpose is. \u00a0He feels alienated by the repetitive and endless\u00a0nature of his work.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Enterprise<\/em> arrives at the space port of Yorktown where the crew goes on shore leave. \u00a0Kirk considers accepting a promotion to Vice Admiral which will remove him from any duties aboard his ship\u00a0in exchange for a much more sedentary life in Yorktown. \u00a0He recommends that Spock take his place as captain of the Enterprise<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The crew are dispatched on a rescue mission when they intercept a distress beacon from an escape pod in a nearby uncharted nebula. \u00a0The lone survivor on board the vessel is Kalara, a captain herself who explains that her crew was kidnapped by a swarm of ships lead by the nefarious Krall. \u00a0The\u00a0Enterprise<\/em> takes on the job of rescuing Kalara’s crew from enslavement by Krall and his minions.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, the trailers and promotional material for the film seem quite happy to spoil what happens next: the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em> flies into a trap set by Krall. \u00a0The ship is destroyed and its crew are marooned on the planet surface. \u00a0Can the crew of the Enterprise escape the planet without their ship? \u00a0Can they stop Krall in his quest for the Altamid? \u00a0Will Kirk find his mojo again?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"startrekbeyondscene\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a number of things I quite liked about\u00a0Star Trek Beyond<\/em>. \u00a0Firstly, a good chunk of the film is spent in the company of Spock and Bones, one of my favourite pairings from the original series who are oil and water in each others company. \u00a0It’s this sort of interaction, between two people who have completely different personalities, learning to get along, that serve up\u00a0some of the best moments in\u00a0Star Trek<\/em> – both in the original series and in the current incarnation.<\/p>\n

Sofia Boutella is also a welcome new addition to the series as Jaylah, a skillful and resourceful scavenger who befriends the crew of the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>. \u00a0Her dry personality makes her the perfect foil to Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott and she is given an opportunity to shine in the film’s third act when she helps lead a raid on Krall’s slave camp.<\/p>\n

Where the modern\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0<\/em>films continue to frustrate me is their insistence on moving the story along at a hundred miles an hour. \u00a0If they could just slow down the proceedings by a gear or two, there would be a much improved film to be enjoyed here.<\/p>\n

Some examples: \u00a0There should be some apprehension on the part of the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em> crew and the audience as to whether Kalara is completely trust worthy. \u00a0Instead her story is taken on face value and we abruptly jump into the next scene before any suspense can be built.<\/p>\n

When the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em> crew are captured and taken to Krall’s slave camp, instead of giving us a couple of scenes showing the hardship and cruelty imposed on them, we see Uhura and Sulu escaping. \u00a0Not even plotting<\/em> to escape. \u00a0Just straight up escaping. \u00a0You don’t have any sense of whats at stake if they haven’t done any hard time yet!<\/p>\n

This sort of pacing – this rush to go from one scene to the next – has bugged me throughout the modern\u00a0Star Trek<\/em> films. \u00a0It makes them feel as though they lack confidence in their audience. \u00a0That the producers are worried they might tune out. \u00a0But the best films know to take their time. \u00a0You don’t see a dinosaur in\u00a0Jurassic Park\u00a0<\/em>until half an hour into the film. \u00a0You don’t see the xenomorph in\u00a0Alien<\/em> until forty minutes in. \u00a0You don’t see the great white in\u00a0Jaws<\/em> for over an hour. \u00a0But in the first fifteen minutes of\u00a0Star Trek Beyond<\/em>, Kirk has pondered the meaning of life, visited this incredible looking space station called Yorktown, rescued an escape pod and crash landed the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>. \u00a0It’s hard to get attached to the fate of Yorktown, wonder about the intentions of Krall or just about anything else in\u00a0Star Trek<\/em> because you aren’t given any time to absorb any information. \u00a0All of it just flies at you at a relentless pace.<\/p>\n

Of course I’m ranting here and I’m probably being a little hard on\u00a0Star Trek Beyond<\/em>. \u00a0It is a perfectly decent film. \u00a0But I think these films could be better. \u00a0 Should be better. \u00a0They just need to have faith in their source material and ease off the caffeine. \u00a0You can’t make the audience wonder about the enormity of space and what exists out there if not a single shot in the film lasts longer than ten seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2583,963,2584,2581,2582,945,193,2171,2170],"class_list":["post-20080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-anton-yelchin","tag-chris-pine","tag-harold-cho","tag-justin-lin","tag-karl-urban","tag-simon-pegg","tag-star-trek","tag-zachary-quinto","tag-zoe-saldana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20080"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20107,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20080\/revisions\/20107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}