Star Trek: Beyond (3 Stars)

Some of my readers might be wondering why I'm giving the latest Star Trek film the same rating as the trashy sci-fi film that I watched yesterday, "The Interplanetary Surplus Male and the Amazon Women from Outer Space". That's an easy question to answer. I rate films in the context of what they're attempting to achieve and whether I think they succeed. "The Interplanetary Surplus Male" -- I have to shorten its name -- is a low budget film made for laughs. I laughed, but I didn't laugh a lot. Three stars. Average. "Star Trek: Beyond" is a big budget motion picture, intended to excite and thrill the viewer. I was excited, but not a lot. Three stars. Average.

I just can't relate to the new Star Trek films made since 2009. They're not right. How can they cast actors who weren't in the original series? I mean, just look at Zoe Saldana. She's a beautiful woman, nobody could deny that, but she's not Nichelle Nichols. Not even close. The same is true of all the other cast members. Chris Pine isn't William Shatner. It's tantamount to sacrilege to allow him to play James T. Kirk. Maybe if I'd never watched the original series I could appreciate the new films more.

Why couldn't they have made the films about another star ship and its crew who were active at the same time as Captain Kirk? That would have been better.

Idris Elba is the film's villain. Normally that would have excited me, because he's one of my favourite actors. However, I feel that he's wasted in his role as Krall. For most of the film he's unrecognisable. It's not just his face, even his voice isn't recognisable. It was a waste hiring such a magnificent actor for this role. They could have saved money by putting a random stunt man inside the costume for the film.

The battle in the final scenes looked very much like something taken from "Star Wars". That's my main criticism of the film: it's too Star-Wars-ish.

Supposedly a fourth Star Trek film will be made with the new actors. I'm dreading it. I thought that computer technology is now far enough advanced to recreate actors on screen. Bring back young versions of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly and Nichelle Nichols. That's the only way to make a good Star Trek film again.

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