So, watched Star Trek Beyond...
...and it was pretty decent.
Trailers I got:
Not much to report except the trailer for Assassin's Creed looks really weird. I mean, people who've played the game, is this the general plot of the game?
The movie experience:
It was fun. And on the way home, I got to chat with the friend I went with and his family about stuff -- including The Final Frontier.
The movie itself:
I might actually have to break some stuff down.
The good:
-The opening negotiation scene was well-done. It was funny, and it also gave some pretty awesome foreshadowing for what was to come.
-Kirk's Captain's Log. It was a good way of exposition, as well as giving us a glimpse of how much the crew of the Enterprise has really grown closer during the space mission.
-Kirk's musings on how he basically outlived his father were genuinely well-done (because Chris Pine did a wonderful job) and moving.
-Jayla was awesome. She played off Scotty wonderfully. Kirk as well. And her recounting her family's captivity with Krall was really well-done -- bonechilling and heartbreaking.
-The humor, as always, was top-notch.
-Uhura, especially in contrast to the fact the last movie I watched was (in the pre-reboot films) The Final Frontier where she didn't get much to do, kicked a lot of ass there. Standing up to Krall and even outright refuting his points about the Federation, for example, and ultimately rescuing Spock...she's just plain wonderful in this movie. She was great in the first two reboots, but here, she really shines.
-The dynamic between Spock and McCoy was pretty good, from the funny (let's say Spock learns a new vocabulary word from McCoy, and the whole bit where he paraphrases it earlier in his usual...Spock speak is pretty funny) to the more poignant (musing on the nature of mortality).
-The callback to "Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys was fucking. Awesome. Using it as a form of combat against Krall's fleet? This is one of those reasons Kirk is awesome.
-I had my issues with Krall, but Idris Elba did a great job with him. The nightmarish Captain's logs of his descent into madness, for example, and his interactions with Uhura and the others. Plus, he got some pretty awesome lines, such as "This is where the frontier pushes back!"
-The tributes put in there to Leonard Nimoy were genuinely touching, such as Spock going through Spock Prime's belongings and finding an old picture of the TOS era crew, and Spock, earlier, trying to come to grips with his Prime counterpart's passing.
-The dedications they put at the end for Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin both were lovely.
-The celebration of Kirk's birthday at the end was lovely.
-Sulu's husband. It's just really cool they included that bit. And it was a sweet scene.
The irritating:
-Krall, in contrast to Khan and even Nero, didn't get much development. One thing I really liked about the Abrams films was...well, this is yet another case of me deflecting something SF Debris said. He accused Into Darkness of...I guess not having much of a "thematic tapestry", so to speak. That's not true, though. It did, mostly in the form of "he who fights monsters must make sure he does not become a monster". Also, the stuff people are willing to do for love. It's actually pretty much a tapestry that sets off the events of the alternate timeline -- Nero did everything he did out of love for his destroyed planet, and his deceased family. It's one of the scariest things about him, actually, both to my wee fourteen year old self who first watched the reboot and me years later -- Nero did all of this in the name of love. (And revenge, but even that was born out of love) Khan, too, did everything he did in the name of love. Krall didn't have to have that motivation, of course, but he could have used some elaboration on his motives. He has a brief Motive Rant in the climax to Kirk in regards to the matter of him not being happy with what the Federation became in contrast with the organization called MACO that he was part of before they were disbanded. And it's good, but I think they could have done more to explore this sort of stuff. Like not only does Balthazar/Krall feel like the Federation failed, he also feels a sense of misplacement. There's a pretty poignant bit in there where Balthazar -- mid Sanity Slippage -- says that the Federation's basically abandoned him and the surviving members of his crew, but I admit that I don't know how it translates over into revenge. Even Nero had a bit of a character progression -- an eye for an eye, a planet for a planet and everything. With Krall, there's not much of a transition. So...Krall feels abandoned so he's going to threaten Starfleet, in a way? Maybe I'm just not getting it, but I felt like a few beats were missing from his character. In addition, why was he counting on Kirk trying to rescue Uhura and co.? Why did he believe the superweapon he had to be a sort of salvation for others? Maybe I just don't get it, again, but it just seemed a lot like, "Okay, character motivation, then Action There Supposed To Show How Evil He Is, then badass trailer line, etc." Nero and Khan's actions had reasons for being there -- they rose organically from their characters instead of just being there for the sake of it. Khan crashing The Vengeance, for example, being both an act of revenge and a sort of Death Seeker action in a way. Krall? I'm still not quite sure what exactly his motivation was.
Krall's character just feels unfinished, and it's a shame because when I first read about him in interviews, he sounded really fascinating. I can only that there was some stuff about his character that ended up on the cutting room floor -- probably more than with Nero, actually.
So overall? It's an enjoyable movie; I recommend you give it a watch. I think I would mostly flesh out the villain some more/make him make sense, but by and large, it's pretty enjoyable. It's a good watch.
Trailers I got:
Not much to report except the trailer for Assassin's Creed looks really weird. I mean, people who've played the game, is this the general plot of the game?
The movie experience:
It was fun. And on the way home, I got to chat with the friend I went with and his family about stuff -- including The Final Frontier.
The movie itself:
I might actually have to break some stuff down.
The good:
-The opening negotiation scene was well-done. It was funny, and it also gave some pretty awesome foreshadowing for what was to come.
-Kirk's Captain's Log. It was a good way of exposition, as well as giving us a glimpse of how much the crew of the Enterprise has really grown closer during the space mission.
-Kirk's musings on how he basically outlived his father were genuinely well-done (because Chris Pine did a wonderful job) and moving.
-Jayla was awesome. She played off Scotty wonderfully. Kirk as well. And her recounting her family's captivity with Krall was really well-done -- bonechilling and heartbreaking.
-The humor, as always, was top-notch.
-Uhura, especially in contrast to the fact the last movie I watched was (in the pre-reboot films) The Final Frontier where she didn't get much to do, kicked a lot of ass there. Standing up to Krall and even outright refuting his points about the Federation, for example, and ultimately rescuing Spock...she's just plain wonderful in this movie. She was great in the first two reboots, but here, she really shines.
-The dynamic between Spock and McCoy was pretty good, from the funny (let's say Spock learns a new vocabulary word from McCoy, and the whole bit where he paraphrases it earlier in his usual...Spock speak is pretty funny) to the more poignant (musing on the nature of mortality).
-The callback to "Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys was fucking. Awesome. Using it as a form of combat against Krall's fleet? This is one of those reasons Kirk is awesome.
-I had my issues with Krall, but Idris Elba did a great job with him. The nightmarish Captain's logs of his descent into madness, for example, and his interactions with Uhura and the others. Plus, he got some pretty awesome lines, such as "This is where the frontier pushes back!"
-The tributes put in there to Leonard Nimoy were genuinely touching, such as Spock going through Spock Prime's belongings and finding an old picture of the TOS era crew, and Spock, earlier, trying to come to grips with his Prime counterpart's passing.
-The dedications they put at the end for Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin both were lovely.
-The celebration of Kirk's birthday at the end was lovely.
-Sulu's husband. It's just really cool they included that bit. And it was a sweet scene.
The irritating:
-Krall, in contrast to Khan and even Nero, didn't get much development. One thing I really liked about the Abrams films was...well, this is yet another case of me deflecting something SF Debris said. He accused Into Darkness of...I guess not having much of a "thematic tapestry", so to speak. That's not true, though. It did, mostly in the form of "he who fights monsters must make sure he does not become a monster". Also, the stuff people are willing to do for love. It's actually pretty much a tapestry that sets off the events of the alternate timeline -- Nero did everything he did out of love for his destroyed planet, and his deceased family. It's one of the scariest things about him, actually, both to my wee fourteen year old self who first watched the reboot and me years later -- Nero did all of this in the name of love. (And revenge, but even that was born out of love) Khan, too, did everything he did in the name of love. Krall didn't have to have that motivation, of course, but he could have used some elaboration on his motives. He has a brief Motive Rant in the climax to Kirk in regards to the matter of him not being happy with what the Federation became in contrast with the organization called MACO that he was part of before they were disbanded. And it's good, but I think they could have done more to explore this sort of stuff. Like not only does Balthazar/Krall feel like the Federation failed, he also feels a sense of misplacement. There's a pretty poignant bit in there where Balthazar -- mid Sanity Slippage -- says that the Federation's basically abandoned him and the surviving members of his crew, but I admit that I don't know how it translates over into revenge. Even Nero had a bit of a character progression -- an eye for an eye, a planet for a planet and everything. With Krall, there's not much of a transition. So...Krall feels abandoned so he's going to threaten Starfleet, in a way? Maybe I'm just not getting it, but I felt like a few beats were missing from his character. In addition, why was he counting on Kirk trying to rescue Uhura and co.? Why did he believe the superweapon he had to be a sort of salvation for others? Maybe I just don't get it, again, but it just seemed a lot like, "Okay, character motivation, then Action There Supposed To Show How Evil He Is, then badass trailer line, etc." Nero and Khan's actions had reasons for being there -- they rose organically from their characters instead of just being there for the sake of it. Khan crashing The Vengeance, for example, being both an act of revenge and a sort of Death Seeker action in a way. Krall? I'm still not quite sure what exactly his motivation was.
Krall's character just feels unfinished, and it's a shame because when I first read about him in interviews, he sounded really fascinating. I can only that there was some stuff about his character that ended up on the cutting room floor -- probably more than with Nero, actually.
So overall? It's an enjoyable movie; I recommend you give it a watch. I think I would mostly flesh out the villain some more/make him make sense, but by and large, it's pretty enjoyable. It's a good watch.