Star Trek: Beyond

After the noisy and irretrievably stupid (though reasonably entertaining) Into Darkness, I wasn't desperate to watch this one, but when I finally did I was relieved to discover that it was even more enjoyable than the first film in the reboot, a rollicking adventure with terrific alien weapons, fun McCoy/Spock repartee, a promising newcomer alien, and a lot of really excellent action scenes.

The movie had almost all the qualities of the original series except one - the thinking part. The smartest thing in the movie is the funny opening scene, which suggests the difficulty of communication between different cultures.

But that's the last thing in the movie that suggests even a moment of thought. The main villain has very little in the way of motivation, and when he explains his purpose it's quite disappointing. Nothing in this movie is there to provoke thought, and I'm not entirely convinced that anything in the movie really makes sense, although there's nothing at the time that hit me as too absurd to live with (unlike the previous movie).

If you expect this movie, like the series, to explore racism and war culture, well, you're not going to be happy. But if you just want some old-fashioned action with some familiar characters, this totally hits the spot.

Boldly going where no man (or woman or non-bianry) has gone before, climb aboard the Enterprise and let it fly and soar, as old friends gather, reunite, off to battle and to fight, strange new worlds, civilisations to explore.

There's a square Pegg in a large round hole, without any passion or any vision and without soul, a ridiculous accent, leaving nothing but lament, a veritable irritant, annoyance and own goal.

That aside, failing to build on the previous epic and nowhere near as enjoyable.

I was a bit surprised by the number of negative reviews this movie received on IMDb. The main complaint seemed to be that the film had too much action?! Anyone old enough to remember seeing 1979's 'The Motion Picture' on the big screen is a unique person... most of us fell asleep. Fortunately, 'Wrath of Khan' saved the day in 1982, with lots of action and a recycled, but disturbingly menacing villain.

C'mon folks... even the original series didn't get too deep and meaningful. It was the more action-oriented pilot featuring strong characters that knew how to have a laugh every now and then that got it the network green light. This is exactly what the reboot movies have been like up to now. Admittedly, there hasn't been a classic in the bunch yet, but the potential is certainly there.

In my view, the reboot films are one really scary villain away from producing a classic. With TNG it was the Borg. Doctor Who has the Daleks. Both races completely inhuman, really nasty, seemingly indestructible, and hellbent on destroying (be it assimilation or extermination) everything in their way. Boldly going where Trek has gone before, so to speak.

Before I write a review I like to browse through the other comments posted first. To surmise, many have got it quite right, this is not the best Star Trek movie, but it is a good one. The story is reasonable, although there are plenty of plot holes that you have to overlook and not delve into them too deeply. I also think that the size of that deep space station is just OTT even for that century, it is far too advanced! Anyway, get over the minor flaws and you will begin to notice that they are starting to focus more on character development and interaction of the personalities within the crew. It is what real fans enjoy the most, including the odd bit of humour.

As for the highly negative reviews on here, please start to put your rankings in perspective, this is by no means a shocking movie and definitely is fit to join the Star Trek Universe. It really winds me up when people rank this movie in the same breath as some of the real shockers we have seen in the last few years!

Spoiler free review: I was lucky to go to the premiere in San Diego at comic con... the night was amazing but it ended with a super fun movie. That's the best word to describe it... fun.

The difference with the past 2 Trek movies was that unlike the original films we didn't bond with this cast over 100 or 200 episodes of slower paced TV. These guys were just tossed into it. This movie gives us an idea what a show with them would be like. It's impossible of course to do. But it was such a nice break form the overreaching drama from Into Darkness.

This is still serious and has tearful moments and sincere motivations from characters... but it's also fun. Some people forget the original trek as Justin Lin told the crowd at the premiere that the original series was fun. It was funny. It was a pure comedy at times. and he's right. This movie takes all the elements the series was... (serious, funny, action, fantasy) and mixes it into one giant movie. Including the Shatner like fist fight.

Loved it.

Dialogue from Simon Pegg and Doug Jung was absolutely natural to the characters and everyone had their moments. The scenes of different characters sharing moments with each other was great.

New characters Jayla is terrific. Sofia was great in the part.

It's sort of a typical Justin Lin movie too as in the set pieces, action scenes fx were simply amazing... breathless... the character moments fantastic, warm, sweet... the story was very good but some holes and confusion at times but it's so worth having that for the pure fun this is.