Star Trek
Beyond
(2016)
(SPOILERS)
The odd/even Star Trek failure/success
rule seemed to have been cancelled out with the first reboot movie, and then
trodden into ground with Into Darkness
(which, yes, I quite enjoyed, for all its scandalous deficiencies). Star Trek Beyond gets us back onto more
familiar ground, as it’s very identifiably a “lesser” Trek, irrespective of the big bucks and directorial nous thrown at
it. This is a Star Trek movie that
can happily stand shoulder to shoulder with The
Search for Spock and Insurrection,
content in the knowledge they make it look good.
But where,
say, The Search for Spock had a rock-solid
script undermined by sloppy direction, Star
Trek XIII is pretty much the reverse. Simon Pegg and Doug Jung have delivered
the most generic, tick-box affair imaginable, ensuring each of the regulars
gets their moment in the sun, some more so than others, and that requisite bases
are touched in terms of the enduring bond between these fine star travellers.
There’s even a nondescript villain worthy of the Next Gen baddies, perhaps even less so, such is his indifferent
motivation and underwhelming reveal.
That reveal
had the potential for being something of substance, and you can see what the
writers were steering for, something self-contained that would pack the kind of
punch the Cumberbatch is Khan “shock” failed to in Darkness. And their starting point for Beyond, getting to the heart of why the Federation is a good thing,
is a noble quest. But they rather fudge it in their back-ended explanation that
Krall is really just a standard-issue aggressor who couldn’t settle down when
the Federation was instituted as a preserver of peace rather than the military
outfit he was used to (which is a bit hard to swallow in itself, as by the
evidence of TOS, the Enterprise crew got to shoot, destroy or stun some alien
threat every week without fail; such activities should have kept Balthazar
Edison more than contented).
There’s
some ripe material to be mined in debating the pros and cons of adopting a united
front, then, but in the end Pegg and Jung make plays for only the most obvious
targets. The team of Kirk and co versus the singular Krall distils the
Federation versus those that would undermine it; they band together to overcome
him, while he, as the personification of its antithesis, sucks the life,
literally, out of his fellows. The obvious possibilities are ignored (instead
of an out-and-out fiend, the Federation could be applying unwanted pressure to
a world to join its ranks; the implication that anyone who resists the benign
might of the Federation is necessarily bad is taken as read here). And Krall,
as the unreconstituted warrior who resists change, is rather serving the
function of the Klingons by another name.
Perhaps the
writers thought strip-mining real-world topics directly would be too much like
Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (particularly since Orci tends to be ardently vilified
as a “Truther”, hence the plotline of Darkness).
But, in a landscape where the validity of the once unassailable European Union
is being daily undermined and the likes of the UN are rubbished as failures
(admittedly from Donald Trump, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t on to
something), and where grand visions of utopian interactions and freedoms are
revealed to operate more along the lines of totalitarian thinking, devolving to
the simplistic baseline of a gun nut who went a bit loco is disappointing. Even
the read-through of Krall, that he has become the very thing he feared the most
(an alien) is left uninterrogated (which in the OST might have been the whole
moral).
Idris Elba
is imposing, both in body and actual language; it’s the script that lets him
down, serving up the kind of overdressed pronouncements that suggest Krall has
been practising in the mirror (“Unity is
not your strength. It is a weakness”; “This
is where the frontier pushes back”). But his babbling captain’s log persona
is poor; it should give us an idea of the man he was and how came undone.
Instead, Elba appears to have given little thought to the performance; it’s as
if he showed up with a hangover and struggled blearily through his lines.
In terms of
script issues, you can also hear the Pegg rhythms in the humorous exchanges,
which is both good and bad. Sometimes there’s a feeling that the presentation
is a little unfinessed, and thus lacking the slight remove Trek should have from the cadences of the here and now. There are
nice call-back touches (the green hand, Chekov’s Wussian inventions, the way Shat
Kirk was forever ripping his shirt), particularly the “classical music” charge levelled
at the Beastie Boys, but when you have both a rerun of Sabotage (nicely used, it has to be said, but a bit of an easy goal
too) and Fight the Power, it smacks
of a franchise lacking confidence in its own essential differentiation from the
present day.
Often too,
the character beats feel artificially employed, rather than having any
semblance of resonance. So there’s still no-dad Kirk trying to find his own
persona (the birthday thing being an echo of The Wrath of Khan; I think we’ve had enough echoes of that movie), Nimoy-less
Spock debating his duty (a better one, but Zachary Quinto has effectively been
given another plotline where he can’t get out of the shadow of the original)
and big gay Sulu. And, er, Uhura entirely defined by the man who isn’t in her
life. They’re elements adhered to the plot, rather than arising from or meshing
with it.
The actual
theme of Kirk and Spock looking to leave Starfleet for different reasons and
finding motivation to stay is a solid one, but if feels like the wrong time and
wrong place, like we’re leap frogging from early days to jadedness without the
good stuff in between (I guess that’s what TV shows are for). And should we
really receive the message that star trekkin’ is boring for these young
whippersnappers (which, despite the suggestions that this gets to a more ensemble-exploratory-celebratory
OST core than the previous reboot movies, is possibly a far more damaging
charge, one that takes away from the whole exciting adventuring ethos)? Of
which, the CGI aliens in the opening sequence, cutely Douglas Adams-y as it is
in its reveal regarding their stature – which after The World’s End suggests Pegg is a much bigger Hitchhiker’s aficionado than Trek
– are really ropily rendered.
One thing
about Abrams’ vision of Trek, and his
approach to movies generally, is that he “gets” how to engineer elements that
pack a punch, be it the soaring emotional high, the plunging depths of loss, or
the high stakes dramatic twist, and Michael Giacchhino accompanies him
perfectly in terms of score. Lin’s film, for all its vertiginous, virtuoso
flourishes (and as a piece of filmmaking, its more instinctively, seamlessly
impressive than Abrams’ work), doesn’t really make you care much about anything
or anyone. It’s agreeable, very well
made, but it has no bite.
Teaming
Spock and McCoy pays dividends for back-and-forth banter, and both Quinto (whose
pout isn’t very Vulcan, and has a similar problem to Krall; his lines have the “shape”
of Spock lines, but feel too devised – “Of
course I care, Leonard”; “We will
find hope in the impossible”) and Karl Urban (sometimes he seems more like
a DeForest Kelly impersonator, but that’s probably because there isn’t a lot to
Bones, in the best possible way; conversely, at least they aren’t silly enough
to give him an emotional bit) are
good value, but it does rather feel that the writers are trying to prove
something we already know, to the extent of teaming them again for the finale
when it isn’t really germane (when did Bones become such a shit-hot pilot?)
Pine is the
standout, and it’s surprising that, given how iconic the Shat is, he warrants
the least need for comparison. Perhaps that’s because, as mentioned, the
spectre of Nimoy unfairly haunts Quinto even here (complete with a lovingly
preserved production photo from The Final
Frontier), and Urban’s Bones is uncannily close to his predecessor, but
Pine is able to do his own thing and make Kirk his own. Some of the material
he’s served doesn’t necessarily help his cause (Kirk’s decision to give the
doohickey to the entirely useless Ensign Syl (Melissa Roxburgh), who promptly
gives it up at the first sign of a threat to a fellow crewmember, is poor
judgement, and not really compensated for by catching on to dodgy Kalara (Lydia
Wilson) early on; his raring around on a motorbike is also a bit too boy racer)
but he gives Kirk both impetuousness and authority, and leaves a strong stamp.
The other
actors (John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Zoe Saldana) are reliable but are given little of consequence (so like the original series movies). And then there’s Pegg,
with his carefully preserved combover/rug and incessant cries of “Lassie!” like he’s last man standing at
a Star Trek pub quiz. I like Pegg in a
fair few things, despite his talent for over-exposure leading to diminishing
returns; he’s a positive in the M:I
franchise, making for an effective contrast with Cruise that just plain works.
But here he’s the wrong kind of fan casting, and he grates whenever he gets (or
gives himself) a lot to do (fortunately he shows enough restrain to keep Scotty
two-dimensional, like Bones).
Sofia Boutella (she of the leg blades in Kingsman) is impressively poised as his buddy
pairing, although she’s more a cypher than a strongly-defined character
(posture and make-up make up for a lot). As for Scotty’s tiny accomplice
Keenser (Deep Roy), he’s no more endearing than ever he was, like a persistent
‘80s sidekick who just won’t go away (I hesitate to call him a Scrappy Doo, as
he isn’t as intrusive, but he’s along the same lines).
The real
star of the show is Justin Lin (Lin having directed Paul Walker’s last fully-completed
film of in the Fast and Furious
series, and now Yelchin’s last full film in this, one probably ought to be nervous
if one is a cast member of any future sequel he attaches himself to). If Beyond is chock full of clichés, and exploding/crashing
Enterprises are just one (there was a time when destroying the Enterprise was a
big thing, about 33 years ago, now it’s like going to the space toilet; Pegg and Jung go out of their way to suggest there are numerous survivors, so as to avoid the usual casual disaster porn, but we only ever see about 20 assembled at any one time, which rather leaves a negative impression), he
more than makes the most of his science fiction playground. So, while he’s
given a very TV show scope at times (half of the proceedings are set in a
glorified quarry, which couldn’t be more Blake’s
7 – it might have been worth taking notes from that series’ dyspeptic view of the joys of an intergalactic
federation), that mentality is entirely in the writing, rather than the
execution.
On the down
side, that opening attack sequence is so strong, and so masterfully sustained,
the rest of the movie can’t equal it. Sure, Lin throws in some highly-polished set
pieces (not content with the ship being crashed, it then has to crash again,
the saucer flipping over with Kirk sliding down it), and the realisation of
Yorktown, in all its multi-planed, multi-perspective splendour is quite
dazzling, but there isn’t the same kind of charge to this final sequence.
Mainly because the villain ain’t all that, and we aren't invested enough in the potential of his deadly weapon (we needed to see a larger test-run really, rather than
just taking out Ensign Syl; as it is his drones have evidenced far greater destructive range).
If they do
make the announced fourth outing (the Kirk’s dad time-travel thing doesn’t
sound like the best route to go, particularly since Chris Hemsworth is no kind
of draw when he’s not Thor), and the box office for XIII thus far makes that questionable, they really need to make it
an event to justify the expense. With a new TV show waiting in the wings, Paramount
may opt to hedge their bets. Lin would be a no-brainer to have back, but he
needs to be serviced with a strong script (and given it has been handed to
Patrick McKay and John D Payne, who worked uncredited on this one, that may be
in doubt). Star Trek Beyond is fine;
it’s energetic, good fun, the action is terrific and the cast are (mostly)
highly accomplished. But this isn’t a series that can get away with just “fine”
entries anymore; too much rides on it cost-wise, and the previous picture did
too much damage to the franchise’s reputation just when it looked like it might
become an international (rather than interstellar) monster.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.