Review: Star Trek Beyond

I’ve a little confession to make – I only saw this movie for the first time last week.  Although I know Simon Pegg is a nerd and a good writer from his work on Spaced and other films, I was still put off seeing this movie because of the utter shambles that was the previous film.  I’m sure that’s probably true of a lot of people which is why this third film hasn’t performed so well at the box office.  Which is a shame, because it’s by far the best of the three, and easily the best Star Trek film since VI.

Kirk actually seems like Kirk for the first time in the rebooted franchise – a weathered and responsible captain who cares about his ship and crew, rather than a reckless kid who skips a dozen ranks because his daddy was a captain.  The other characters all seem pretty much on point as well and the jokes all work and are pretty funny.  And not a brewery in sight.

One or two little issues, like why build the giant space city right next to an uncharted nebula, or why is there a motorcycle on the other ship (I mean, I guess it makes sense for crews to bring mementos of home along with them, and I suppose it wouldn’t have been too hard to have got it on board using the transporter).  The ship they escape in also seems far too small to accommodate the Enterprise’s entire crew, but I guess most of them had been killed by that point.

But despite the massive death toll. I still think this is the best Star Trek film in a long time.  I give it seven strips of bacon.  Would recommend.