![]() Most important, the gang’s all here, and Mr. Abrams’s fussy tries to combine digital spectacle with old-fashioned cinematic discipline. Lin has shown a playful willingness to extend - and, if necessary, suspend - the laws of physics, and his visual brashness can be a refreshing antidote to Mr. In his work on the “Fast and Furious” movies, Mr. Up until the tedious and bombastic finish, though, you can have a pretty good time. Or weird random stuff, like tribbles or Joan Collins-related time travel. Sometimes Kirk and his crew have to deal with local disputes and personnel issues. Sometimes the future of the universe hangs in the balance. Fans love “Star Trek” precisely because of its episodic nature, which allows for a certain amount of variation in theme and tone. The characters never change, but the stakes can shift wildly from one adventure to the next. Not every wheel needs reinventing, and one of the abiding pleasures of “Star Trek,” in its old and newer iterations, lies in its balance of stubborn consistency and canny inventiveness. Don’t worry!” It should have been called “Star Trek Within” in honor of its determination to color inside the lines, obeying the ironclad conventions of brand and genre. Directed by the action maven Justin Lin from a script by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, the film answers the question “Beyond what?” with a diffident “Well, nothing, really. It’s not necessarily a criticism to note that not much materializes. So you can understand why James T., a good soldier and also a bit of a loose cannon, might want to break out of the rut, and the title of the latest movie, “Star Trek Beyond,” teases the audience with the promise of novelty and risk. The larger “Star Trek” enterprise has been boldly going on for a half-century, and more hours of television and cinema than I possess the Googling acumen to tally. This character, originated by William Shatner, has endured a lot more. Chris Pine, who has played Kirk since the big-screen reboot in 2009, is on his third voyage. “Things are starting to feel a little … episodic,” he confesses, in what even a sympathetic viewer might interpret as a meta-statement, a confession of franchise fatigue. Abrams may have gone from Trek, but his biggest legacy was in casting these roles perfectly, and there’s a joy to be gleaned from watching them interact.Musing in his Captain’s Log as his birthday approaches, James Tiberius Kirk, his eyes as blue as the lens flare that accompanies the first shot of the Starship Enterprise, finds himself in a funk. Pegg’s Scotty is a little more involved here, but it’s not like Pegg has suddenly written himself a hero’s role. ![]() Even though the movie’s structure allows new director Justin Lin to split the Enterprise’s crew into different mini-factions and place the emphasis on resourcefulness and teamwork as they try to figure out a way off the rock they’re stranded upon, there’s still not a huge amount for Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, John Cho’s Sulu (who is revealed to be gay in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way) and the late Anton Yelchin’s Chekov to do. In an ensemble movie, heavy emphasis on some characters may mean others are somewhat underserved, and that does happen here. There’s a moment during a third-act action scene that should, by any rights, be utterly ridiculous (it may yet prove divisive, but we loved it you’ll know it when you see it), yet Pine sells it with nothing more than a gleam in his eye and a slight smirk. Once again, the actor strikes the perfect blend of swaggering action hero, thoughtfulness and occasional Shatnerism. Pine is the stand-out here, though, as Kirk wrestles throughout with the ghost of his father, and a monumental career decision. Quinto is also excellent in these scenes, which allow him to further showcase Spock’s humanity without compromising the character’s emotional core. But here, he’s given so much more to do, as Bones and an injured Spock become a virtual double act, a space-age Abbott and Costello, bantering and bickering with each other as they face what seems to be near-certain death. Indeed, Urban has talked about his reluctance to return for this instalment, and given how McCoy was reduced to virtual cameo status in Into Darkness, you couldn’t have blamed him if he had walked. That trio were the beating heart of the original iteration of Star Trek, but in terms of scenes together, they’ve been largely lacking in this new, younger, sexier guise. ![]() But the key tweak here is a welcome one namely, a new focus on Chris Pine’s Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Spock, and Karl Urban’s Bones. That kind of fan service can, of course, be dangerous, and Beyond is not without its flaws. It’s a movie that, in almost every word of the script, responds to the fans’ criticisms and says, “We listened.” ![]()
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