Phasers on third outing fail to stun
Dedicated to Anton Yelchin, whodiedinafreakaccidentin June,andLeonardNimoy,the thirdinstalmentStarTrekisa familiarconflationofpastand future present that fails to set phasers to stun.
JJ Abrams vacated the director’s chair to make Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so Justin Lin, who helmed four turbo-charged entries of The Fast And The Furious franchise, steps into the fray.
He orchestrates action set pieces with confidence although some of the interstellar skirmishes are reduced to a dizzying blur by gyroscopic camera work and overly enthusiastic editing.
Script-writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung stoke the comedic ante with a slew of wry one-liners and they complement one outlandish set piece with a deafening blast of the Beastie Boys’ 1994 anthem, Sabotage.
The crew of the Enterprise are three years into their five-year mission to boldly go where the cult 1960s TV show went before, without the benefit of stateof-the-art digital effects.
Captain James T Kirk (Chris Pine) is considering relinquishing the bridge.
He keeps his plans secret from the rest of the crew including human-Vulcan science officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), communications officer Uhura (Zoe Saldana), navigator Pavel Chekov (Yelchin), chief engineer Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg) and helmsman Sulu (John Cho). During a visit to a Federation starbase under the control of Commodore Paris (Shohreh Aghdashloo), an alien called Kalara (Lydia Wilson) issues a distress call to help recover her ship, which has crash-landed on a planet in a distant nebula.
Kirk and the team respond and subsequently come under attack from an otherworldly despot called Krall (Idris Elba) and his swarming drones.
While the Enterprise forges an alliance with feisty alien warrior Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), Kirk holds firm to his moral compass, defiantly informing Krall that it’s “better to die saving lives than to live taking them”.
Star Trek Beyond dodges the curse of misfiring odd-numbered films in the series, but the flaws are obvious.