Some of you know that I am a big Star Trek fan....now you all do. :-)
I was NOT a fan of the re-boot. I felt they would just ruin these characters by making them something different than what I'd come to know and love. And, in the first two movies of the re-boot, I was at least partially correct, IMHO. When Star Trek is GREAT, what makes it so is character interaction and development. In every incarnation, this has been true. Everyone on the Enterprise has a story and how these disparate personalities interact is what makes the whole thing compelling. Sure, they are in situations and places we'll never be, but the stories are, at their center, human. The first movie of the re-boot did a little of this, telling us how all the characters got to the Enterprise (after showing us why this is actually a re-boot, but enough of my grousing about that aspect). I thought the casting was fairly good, with Karl Urban's portrayal of Dr. McCoy being a standout. The second movie was a re-hash of a story we already heard twice.....casting the excellent Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan was a bit puzzling, however.
What made these movies off putting to me, apart from the lack of good storytelling, was this: In the original series on thru to "Enterprise", everyone on the ship, no matter where they came from, was fallible and believable. They made mistakes and had limitations. We identify with them because they represent us. In the first two re-boot movies, that was largely not the case: we saw people doing things that were not possible.....like super-heroes. Don't get me wrong....I love super-hero movies. Just not with these guys. They are highly trained Starfleet personnel, yes, but no super-heroes.
When I saw the first trailer for "Star Trek Beyond", I was aghast. Firstly, the director comes from the "Fast & Furious" series....then I saw Kirk riding an ancient motorcycle on an alien world to the strains of rap music, jumping from a ramp-like hill into the ether. I figured this was going to be the first Star Trek movie I passed on seeing. Evidently, I was not the only person who had the same reaction....the following day, Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the script, issued a statement about the trailer, saying that it didn't represent the whole movie, just a small bit of it. I love Simon Pegg and his writing, so I pushed the trailer to the side and waited on the next bit. The next one was a bit better, so I decided I would indeed go see this one in the theatre.
I won't spoil any plot points by wring a full review, but I came away fully impressed by it. There was far more character-driven plot than in the first two and the actors have truly grown into the roles. Urban is still fantastic, but now all of the cast have inhabited their characters fully. The plot was new and fresh feeling. The rap tunes I'd heard in the trailer with the Kirk/motorcycle scene were not even in that part of the movie and they felt just fine where they ended up.
I am still no fan of the re-boot idea, but this direction seems ok.
