Star Trek Beyond - Movie Review

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella, Deep Roy and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
Written by Simon Pegg & Doug Jung.
Directed by Justin Lin.

★★★

After Star Trek into Darkness turned out to be a remake of The Wrath of Khan, they wanted to be a little more original this time around. And they were. This felt like a two-hour episode of the original series, so by being more faithful to the spirit of the series, it was able to break out and tell a new story.

The Enterprise is now more than halfway through its five-year mission, and the crew is starting to feel bored. But then an opportunity comes along to explore a nebula where no one knows what's inside it, and things sound interesting. Of course once they go inside, they're attacked, the Enterprise is destroyed, and they're stranded on an unknown planet.

The movie takes its time to give everyone character moments. We've gotten to know them; now it lets us enjoy their interactions. Spock and McCoy spend a good section of the film stranded together, and their interplay was the most enjoyable part of the movie. (Karl Urban's best work yet in the role.) It also benefits from guest work by Idris Elba as the main villain Krall, and from Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service) as Jaylah, a different alien who's been stranded a long time herself.

The late, great Anton Yelchin is just part of the ensemble as Chekov, and I can't help but wish they'd given him more to do. But they had the luxury of thinking they could just do that in the next movie.

Star Trek is a likable series. It's never my #1 must-see of the year, but I'm always glad when the opportunity to see another one rolls around. Especially when it's good.

Star Trek Into Darkness - Movie Review

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bruce Greenwood, Alice Eve and Peter Weller.
Directed by JJ Abrams.

★★★

This is a movie that is determined to have fun.  It plays with old Trek tropes (maybe a little too much this time around) while blazing a trail for the new.

It starts out with characters on the run.  Maybe if this had been an episode of the TV show it would have started with Kirk and McCoy landing on the planet, observing the sentient beings there. But we're in a movie, so let's skip to the action.  Kirk and McCoy banter as they run, until they get to a cliff where they don't even slow down; they just jump 60 feet and fortunately don't hit any rocks when they land in its ocean.

Turns out Kirk violated the Prime Directive while there.  (You remember the Prime Directive. That plot device that was violated every third episode.)  He gets demoted, and Admiral Pike gets the Enterprise back.  This can't end well for Pike, no matter what timeline we're in.  Hopefully this time he won't wind up as a quadriplegic who can only communicate with a "Yes/No" light, as he did on the series.  (Spoiler: he doesn't.)

Benedict Cumberbatch, an actor blessed with a name out of the Douglas Adams universe, plays the far-less-adventurously-nomenclatured "John Harrison", a domestic terrorist who is apparently plotting to start an intergalactic war.  Cumberbatch has a deep, symphonious voice, one where every syllable carries weight.

I caught the 3D version, and it was fine.  There were some set pieces where it worked well, but usually I forgot it was in 3D.  Which can be a compliment too.

My main criticism would be those "this is my JJ Abrams signature" lens flares on the bridge of the Enterprise.  I really hope he doesn't fill Star Wars Episode VII up with those.  Meanwhile I also hope they find a good director for Star Trek: Bring on the Klingons.

Star Trek 2 is #1, Iron Man 3 is #2

For the weekend of May 17-19, 2013.

1.  Star Trek into Darkness - $70.56 million ($84.09) - 1 wk (Par)
 . . . 3868 screens / $18,241 per screen
2.  Iron Man 3 - $35.18 ($337.07) - 3 wks (BV) -51.5%
 . . . 4237 / $8304
3.  The Great Gatsby - $23.42 ($90.16) - 2 wks (WB) -53.2%
 . . . 3550 / $6596
4.  Pain & Gain - $3.1 ($46.57) - 4 wks (Par) -38%
 . . . 2429 / $1276
5.  The Croods - $2.75 ($176.75) - 9 wks (Fox) -23.8%
 . . . 2373 / $1159
6.  42 - $2.73 ($88.74) - 6 wks (WB) -40.5%
 . . . 2380 / $1147

It's a blockbuster world, and we're all just living in it.

Star Trek into Darkness is the third successful weekend launch in a row.  It's about on course with the four-day launch of the first film, which went on to gross $257 million domestic and a worldwide total of $385 million. I get the feeling the domestic will be less this time around but the worldwide will be more, and therefore it'll be about as profitable.

Iron Man 3 remains huge.  It's already passed $1 billion worldwide.

The Great Gatsby is Baz Luhrmann's highest-grossing film to date. The decision to move it to this summer has proven to be a smart one. I don't think it would have hit $100 million in the Christmas 2012 crowd.

Everything else still in theaters is lucky to be there.  This coming week will see three more wide releases (Epic, Fast & Furious 6, Hangover 3) consume more screens.