Star Trek Beyond

I think I’ll do a like/dislike analysis for this one.

Likes:
– Interactions between the cast members. The story opened these up a little more this time around, and these characters and their relationships are a big part of why this was an enjoyable watch overall. They especially played up the Bones/Spock team, which I liked.

– The nature of the story, namely how the characters were split up. It allowed them each to have their moments and the story seemed to have a singular purpose. There was some pretty on-the-nose themes, like unity vs struggle, that would have been done more subtly, but oh well.

– I liked the mirror between Kirk’s doubts and the villain’s motives. When the movie started off with Kirk feeling lost, I thought it was an interesting idea to explore. Mind you, it ended up exactly where we all knew it would.

Dislikes:
– Visually, I found this movie very, very dark. Most of the time I couldn’t really tell what was even happening, let alone be able to take in the details of the frame. I’m not sure if it was the 3D, or the projection at my theater (though I’m never had problems there before), but it was really annoying.  Perhaps THIS is the movie that should have been called “Into Darkness”.

– The action was either really bland, or really blurry. Again, could have been 3D, but if they choose to release it in that overstayed-its-welcome format, then the criticism is deserved.

– The Sabotage moment. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

– The character of Jayla. She was endearing enough that this isn’t that big an issue, but something about her just felt… juvenile, maybe?

This was pretty average. There were other small things that irked me, but overall the likable characters tend to save it.

7/10