‘Star Trek Beyond’: action-packed film continues franchise’s 50th anniversary

Star Trek Beyond got off to a strong start on Friday, hauling in $22.5 million in its first full day at the box office. They create a film that should please “Star Trek” fans devoted to the original series and those captured in recent years. But in getting the crew of the starship Enterprise to tackle a more manageable (but still life-or-death) crisis with new alien enemies and allies, Beyond returns Trek a bit closer to its origins while also relying less on reimagined versions of old characters and storylines.

Even though the plot is flimsy and there are far too many holes in it, the sheer pace of the movie, as well as the excellent ensemble cast manage to paper over the cracks sufficiently enough that you don’t really notice those flaws until you think about it much later.

The story will probably involve some kind of time-travel, just like the first of the Abrams’ Star Trek reboot.

Now, in the franchise’s 50th anniversary year, there’s a new film now playing in theaters that serves as an incredibly timely tribute to Roddenberry’s work and his message, “Star Trek Beyond”.

And Beyond delivers that, for the most part, although like the 2009 film, it suffers from an underwhelming villain who’s never half as interesting as the main characters.

On a mission into uncharted space to rescue a stranded ship, the Enterprise comes under attack from a swarm of ships commanded by the villainous Krall.

J.J. Abrams hands over “Star Trek Beyond” to action-savvy director Justin Lin (“Fast & Furious”) and the writing duo of Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead”) and Doug Jung (“Dark Blue”), which proves to be a smart decision.

These include Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto), Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), Dr. “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban) and Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin, the young actor who died in a June 19 accident).

Simon Pegg, who’s co-written the screenplay, beefs up his own role as the scrappy tech-wiz Scotty, and the crew finds an unexpected ally in the form of a stripe-faced alien named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) who’s nursing a grudge against the nemesis they must vanquish. They do allow for some familiar Trek philosophizing, though, in a less heavy-handed (but also slightly shallower) manner than the social commentary of Into Darkness. [It’s my] favorite Star Trek story that we’ve had.