The Enterprise gets tricked into helping an alien species who said her crew was taken by Krall and his army. Krall takes almost everyone on the Enterprise. Some manage to escape. Everyone crash lands on a planet they’ve never seen before. Captain Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Dr. McCoy, Jaylah and Pavel must figure out a way to save the crew from Krall, defeat him and escape the planet.
Blaine: These “Star Trek” movies I couldn’t get into. I don’t dislike “Star Trek”, I’m just not a fan. However I really got into “Star Trek: Beyond” and found it exciting to watch.
J.J. Abrams had directed the first two “Star Trek” movies, but by the time it came to making a third movie, J.J. was attached to direct “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, so a new director had to be hired. Justin Lin had achieved success in directing four of the “Fast & Furious” movies and five and six became box office hits. The reason they did so well is because Justin put a lot of excitement into them. Justin is also a director with passion and doing a “Star Trek” movie was very exciting for Justin to take on because he was in love with “Star Trek” growing up. Justin was nervous about a lot of things while making “Star Trek: Beyond” because this was a big project to be directing and he wanted to make sure the movie was 100% good. J.J. Abrams believed in Justin and told him that he was going to be in charge and he can do it whatever way he wanted to do. The best people to write a script for a “Star Trek” movie are people who have been long time fans. Simon Pegg had been playing Scotty through this “Star Trek” trilogy, which has been a dream for him because he’s been a fan since he was a boy. J.J. asked Simon if he wanted to write the screenplay for the next “Star Trek” because he knows how talented he is at writing and has a passion for “Star Trek” and Simon could not refuse. It was very exciting for Simon to be writing his own “Star Trek” movie, but he wasn’t going to do it alone. Another screenwriter named Doug Jung was hired to collaborate with Simon on writing the script for “Star Trek: Beyond”. Simon and Doug made a great team and together they developed the perfect “Star Trek” script. As “Star Trek” fans, Simon and Doug asked what they wanted to see in the movie and they came up with tons of ideas. Simon and Doug wanted “Beyond” to be a movie that would attract people who weren’t fans of “Star Trek” and they succeeded because it worked on me.
Simon and Doug thought about dividing the main characters into groups with two in each and show characters you don’t usually see together. A lot of the stuff that happens in “Star Trek” is about friendship. In the last movie, “Into Darkness”, it showed how much Captain Kirk and Spock cared for each other. And in “Beyond” you see all the characters be there for one another.
Captain Kirk acts different in “Beyond” compared to how he was in the first two “Star Trek” movies. It’s like he takes after Pike, the captain of the Enterprise ship before him. Kirk doesn’t fool around much, he’s taking things more seriously. Kirk has a lot of suspicions around the alien who tricked the Enterprise crew. She keeps trying to make herself look like she is trustworthy, but Kirk doesn’t take any chances and he tricks her into revealing that she is working for Krall. Kirk is still fun though, but with the Enterprise ship destroyed and his crew in danger he takes that seriously because he cares for them.
Leonard Nimoy had passed away while “Beyond” was in development. Leonard Nimoy had made cameo appearances in the first two “Star Trek” movies as his famous character, Spock, at an elder age. Spock traveled back in time, was stuck in the past and had remained there for the rest of his life. Spock met his younger self and they became close. Leonard Nimoy’s death gave Simon and Doug an idea for what young Spock would go through in “Beyond”. Old Spock’s death makes young Spock question life and death. He’s also asking himself if he should switch careers, even though I would say he has it good. He gets to explore different planets and different species of alien life forms and he is in a romantic relationship with Lieutenant Nota Uhura and he sees her a lot because they work together. Zachary Quinto, who plays young Spock from the past, said Leonard Nimoy was apart of “Star Trek: Beyond” spiritually because his Spock is thought of a lot by young Spock.
Simon and Doug also wanted there to be surprises for the characters. Justin Lin wanted the Enterprise ship to be destroyed in “Star Trek: Beyond” and Simon Pegg was against that. But Justin had a good reason for the ship being destroyed. It would be showing how much the ship means to everyone and it would be shown dramatically. Simon agreed that was a good idea, so he went with it. After the ship gets destroyed, Krall takes the crew on Altamid, a planet no one is familiar with. The crew members who escaped are scouting Altamid and trying to figure out how they are going to save everyone.
Krall is a mutated alien and I wasn’t paying much attention to him because there was already enough going on in “Beyond” like how close members of the Enterprise crew are and their relationships, trying to save the crew and get everyone off that planet Altamid. There was also the action, the ship and the new female character, Jaylah. Not every villain in a movie is perfect, but the makeup they did to transform Idris Elba into an alien species impresses me and those prosthetics Idris had to wear on his face weighed a ton.
Simon Pegg and Doug Jung felt there weren’t enough women in the “Star Trek” franchise and so they created a new character that would be intelligent, physical and a new alien race. They didn’t know what her name would be at first, so they just called her Jennifer Lawrence until they thought of a name. Then they played around with Jennifer Lawrence’s name, they called her Jaylah for short and they liked the name so much that they stuck with it. Jaylah is a scavenger who has been stuck on Altamid for a while and has been doing everything she can to repair a ship that can get her out of there. It’s almost like she is stranded on an island. Scotty is the first one to meet Jaylah and they work together on repairing her ship. The ship that gives Jaylah shelter is an early Starlet vessel that went missing more than a hundred years ago. For the crew, to find out they weren’t the first ones to travel through space was another one of those surprises Simon and Doug had in mind. It amazes me that Jaylah would be able to do all the work on repairing that ship by herself, but of course she had nothing better to do than survive. She devoted her life to repairing that ship after escaping Krall’s prison camp. Jaylah has been alone for so long. She looks like she needs a friend and Scotty develops a close relationship with her.
Sofia Boutella (Climax) had just switched careers after being a dancer for a long time. She was in “Kingsman Secret Service” the year before, but she saw more magic in making movies through her experience on “Star Trek: Beyond”. Sofia Boutella had never watched “Star Trek” growing up, but she was a fan of the two movies before “Beyond”. To be involved with the third movie was really exciting for her and she felt proud in playing a strong character. Jaylah is also emotional because she has been through a lot.
Simon Pegg and Doug Jung didn’t know what Jaylah was going to look like as they were writing the part. Jaylah’s looks had to be iconic and it was the makeup department’s job to do that. Sofia felt like someone else when the prosthetics were applied to her skin. Whenever it’s dark, Jaylah's eyes look like they glow up like a firefly and the makeup department did an impressive job with that.
Jaylah helps Scotty get Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and Pavel, but she refuses to help them get the crew out of Krall’s prison camp because she doesn’t know if it’ll work out, plus it brings back painful memories for when she was a prisoner there. Jaylah’s father sacrificed his life so she could escape and she doesn’t want his death to be in vain. It’s too much for her, but Scotty is there to comfort her. Kirk didn’t trust the first alien who tricked the Enterprise on the mission, but he can see truth in Jaylah. Kirk even feels for her when she tells Scotty how she escaped. Kirk’s father gave his life to save the lives of hundreds, including Kirk’s.
Jaylah is unsure about saving the rest of the crew, but Scotty tells her you just got to have faith and she choses to believe him. Jaylah helps Kirk, and the others save the crew even though she feels uncomfortable with it, but she is a real team player. Kirk and the others successfully get the crew on board the USS Franklin ship. Before Kirk gets transferred, he makes sure no one gets left behind. Jaylah is in trouble and she lost her device to get transported back on the ship after it was taken away by one of Krall’s men. Kirk won’t leave Jaylah behind and he makes sure that they both make it to the ship. Kirk and Scotty have earned Jaylah’s full trust and she puts her fate into their hands by making the ship fly. Watching Jaylah's reaction as she is seeing the planet going a distance was powerful for me. This was something Jaylah had long awaited for and to finally be free from that planet is a lot to take in.
Simon Pegg an Doug Jung wanted there to be a lot of old fashioned stuff in “Beyond” and it would be used to save the crew and defeat Krall. Whenever Simon Pegg hears prison camp he thinks of “The Great Escape” and he had an idea of adding in an old motorcycle, like the one Steve McQueen had in that film, for the scene where Kirk and the others go to rescue the crew. Simon and Doug wanted to have the characters take down Krall’s army in a cool way and when they thought about Jaylah being into punk music it sounded perfect. Simon and Doug kept rewriting that scene and tried to figure out how that scene should go and how to make it sound perfect. Simon Pegg loves the song “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys and it really fits in with “Beyond”.
All goes well in the end, as usual and seeing the characters come together as they are looking at a new Enterprise ship being built, it feels like family. “Star Trek” was celebrating 50 years by the time “Beyond” was released and the best place to premiere the movie was where all fans go and that was San Diego near Comic-Con.
My rating on “Star Trek: Beyond” is five out of five stars
