Star Trek Beyond (2016) REVIEW

Captain of the USS Enterprise, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is feeling somewhat lost and reminiscent. As the crew travel further into space on a 5 year mission, the path becomes unchartered. 
Everyday life is thrown into turmoil one fateful day, when an unknown ship of seemingly unstoppable aliens attack the Enterprise, it makes Spock's (Zachary Quinto) relationship dramas look like child's play. 
As destruction ensues, the crew are all forced to abandon ship, forcing them to crash on the nearest planet, but they are all split up. Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Lieutenant Uhura (Zoe Saldana) Chekov (the late Anthon Yelkin) and the rest of the crew must find a way to defeat their new enemies, and to find each other. But will they all get out alive? 
Justin Lin has taken over the directorial reigns for J.J Abrams, gone are Abrams' signature lense flares, but what remains is the sense of fun and also clear affection still for the original series material. Lin, as with the Fast and Furious series, effectively amps up the pace of the story and the action with character moments solidifying the Star Trek 'family'. And for the most part it's pretty effective. The pace however, verges on feeing rushed at points, the other issue being that with such a large cast, great actors feel underused.
The sequence with the destruction of the Enterprise is genuinely jaw dropping, the rest of the movie can never quite hit the thrills of the first act.
That doesn't mean there isn't anything to relish for the rest of the film however. Karl Urban's Bones (who Barry feature in Into Darkness) steals the show with his disdain and sarcasm. Pine truly does seems to be turning into a better looking William Shatner, he still manages both moments of drama and humour with a confident breeze. Pegg, who is a co script writer, unsurprisingly gets a lot of screen time is fun but Scotty the lacked emotional depth I wanted out of him. Yelchin, is sparky and endlessly watchable despite little time on screen. The same goes for Idris Elba as Krall the villain - he deserved more.
Overall this film is bright, slightly messy, thrill ride, with a ridiculously fun motorbike scene with the Captain himself. 7/10