Star Trek Beyond

Perhaps the most elaborate script of the series, killed by the jockeying of the action races, where the routine waterfall of attractions is mostly spent sadly reminiscing about the times when two big destructive events were good enough and the rest was made up with fancy characters and casual humor. One witty line about stalking and a dozen fast and furious "copy & paste" shots for a hundred and twenty minutes. A clear aspirant for the Top 5 blockbuster shits of the year. (21/09/2016)

Probably the worst episode of the franchise for me. But if every worst episode of a franchise looked like this, I'd go to the movies every day. Unfortunately, the third Star Trek operates with a not very interesting story that doesn't really move the characters anywhere, their relationships don't get much space (although the actors are all pretty well established in their roles), and nothing much actually happens realistically. It's just a story about the Enterprise crew running into a nutcase who wants to destroy everything nice in the universe "again". The middle part, where there's more talking than shooting and fighting, is a bit of a bore, but the beginning and end make up for it easily. We all knew that Justin Lin could do action, but the opening, in which the Enterprise takes a nasty hit, is an incredibly gripping scene that, especially in IMAX, totally stands out. As does the explosive finale, which had me grinning like an idiot as a Beastie Boys fan. Too bad for the slightly off-kilter villain and the aching holes in logic, but it all kind of belongs in a summer blockbuster. So if you want a big, loud, snappy, spectacular and fun movie, the new Star Trek is perfect. (15/05/2017)

As a space opera, it's more in the department of Mark Stone than "intended" Star Trek (only introductory ten minutes are in line with the latter one), the pace is furious as in the blockbuster movie and it's packed with action, but the action scenes are way too confusing, and so paradoxically the movie works best as a one-liner comedy, which is not taken seriously, not at all. And it helps a lot. (17/08/2016)

The third part of modern Star Trek movies differs from the previous two parts in that it puts much more emphasis on the starship crew and humor at the expense of the story itself, which is simplified to an absolute minimum. You can easily find the story boring, compared to the second installment, but you will be laughing from the beginning to the end. For example, Simon Pegg definitely enjoyed himself portraying the character. And rightly so because he contributed to the script. And it shows. You will laugh not only at him, but also at a number of other situations that make the Enterprise crew one of the best ones in today’s blockbusters. Which is definitely good. Thanks to that, the whole movie series came closer to the TV series itself, and I think that any Trekkie could certainly appreciate this. It’s not just about being a modern flashy digital movie, but also about the cool atmosphere during the whole film. And you get loads of it. (07/06/2017)

The latest Star Trek bears a striking resemblance to Star Wars on first impression: lots of worlds, strange creatures and smells, cityscapes and space ships. It's just that what is pure invention and creative joy in Star Wars is rather copied from somewhere in the new adventure of the Enteprise crew and set up to look fantastic to the eye, but not so glorious under the skin. The main plot is not even worth commenting on. Basically, there isn't any – unless you count the bad guy who wants to destroy the world, or in this case the universe. After a great opening action scene and a fantastic gala presentation of the combat base (visual effects artists rulez, camera wtf?) comes an exhausting half hour of hanging out on a semi-deserted planet in blackened filters with one cool painted girl kicking ass all around and still managing to listen to music. The ending returns to warp mode and puts up a solid battle, where it narrowly loses to its predecessors, it’s weaker. Less constricted, less dramatic and less dark, but endearingly mischievous with wonderfully layered characters and a healthy essence of humour. (22/08/2016)