By Cynthia Ayala

“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.”

—IMDB

This movie made me so happy. After Into Darkness I was apprehensive about the Star Trek franchise because Into Darkness lost its way in trying to appeal to both Trekkies and the mass market. It tried too hard to be one classic (The Wrath of Khan) that it ended up being another classic (The Undiscovered Country) but with less of the heart that would have appealed to Star Trek fans because it just missed the mark, it missed the intent of Gene Roddenberry‘s work. Moreover, with this film, when I heard that they were doing reshoots after it initially wrapped up, which usually almost always spells out doom for a movie. However, you wouldn’t know it watching this film, because whatever they had to go and fix, they nailed it, and they brought back what Gene Roddenberry intended, they brought back hope, they brought back peace, and unity, and everything else that Gene Roddenberry intended when he first created Star Trek.

This was a marvelous film, very story oriented, very character driven, bringing back this cast that not only has the perfect chemistry with one another, but they also fit these characters to a “T”. This is perfect casting for any film, and these actors, they are not only making the characters their own, but they are also honoring those who came before them. They are amazing and the additional casting for this movie added to that legacy. Sofia Boutella, who plays Jaylah, was brilliant. She’s funny, smart, and she has chemistry with the others. I would love to see more of her in the franchise. Sofia Boutella was just brilliant in her role, in bringing it to life and helping the story move along. Idris Elba made a great a villain, my only complaint would have to be with the makeup, in the beginning, some words were a little hard to make out to the audience. Early on, it’s just a bit difficult to understand. That was probably some of the intent behind his character to make him more fearsome, more intimidating, but the character loses some of that when the audience can’t understand what he’s saying. However, despite that, he was a great villain for the film because he wasn’t always a villain, presenting the film with a great plot twist. He was also an excellent foil for Kirk, who was beginning to lose his way in the beginning, but found it back in the captain seat saving his crew. That is Kirk, head to toe.

The story has a whole, it moved slowly at times, but it still captured the interest of the audience because the story played like a classic episode, it had the depth, it had the heart, and it had a crucial message: that there is strength in unity. With everything going on in the world right now, unity in times of darkness and war, is a powerful and hopeful message, one that the story didn’t lose sight of. These writers, they knew what they were doing. Whatever was wrong with it that required additional filming; the audience will never know because the writers and director repaired it excellently, repairing the franchise as well.

Simon Pegg and Doug Jung fixed the film; they fixed franchise, and they brought it back home, they found their way back after they lost their way. These are two writers and a director who know what they were doing, who know how to fix the damage done with Into Darkness. Honestly, Star Trek Beyond will make the fans happy and capture the attention of the mass market without missing a beat. This is a film Gene Roddenberry would be proud of. (★★★★ | A+)

—Film Credits—

Directed by Justin Lin

Screenplay by Simon Pegg & Doug Jung

Based on Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella & Shohreh Aghdashloo

Rating | Length | Genre: PG-13 | 2 hr 2 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Distributed by Paramount Pictures