The third installment in the restarted Star Trek franchise returns back to the old Star Trek way of focusing on the philosophical aspects of existence while also giving us enough action and fun and comedic moments to be enjoyed by non-Trekies. The director Justin Lin and especially the writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung deserve a lot of credit for this movie. Its always hard to continue the story of a popular brand name and also come up with something new for audiences to watch and Simon and Doug did that in my opinion.In Beyond, the crew of the USS Enterprise faces Krall (Idris Elba) who was once a human soldier and captain of USS Franklin but lost his way after becoming disinterested and disillusioned with th Federation's peace motive. Less than halfway through the movie, The Enterprise gets blown up by Krall and ultimately it is the up to the stranded crew primarily Kirk, Bones, Spock, Uhura, Sulu, and Scotty with the help of Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), an alien who got stuck on this planet after her family was murdered by Krall. This was an excellent story plot in the movie as its emphasizes no matter how big the USS Enterprise might be, it is the crew which makes it bigger.
The performances of Chris Pine, Karl Urban, and Sofia Boutella hooked me the most to the screen even though everyone was good. Zachary Quinto, somehow, looked more like Leonard Nimoy playing Spock. Leonard's presence was of course felt in this movie because of his demise early on. And the film makers integrate that into the story seamlessly. I felt more of an emphasis put on the subtle comedic moments and also felt a little flavor of Guardians of the Galaxy which is a good thing.
The few things I did not like were some of the rotating camera angles to show the ginormity of a shot which did confuse me somewhat but that's just me. Also, the villain was not the strong point of the film even though Idris Elba's performance was good as usual. I found Benedict Cumberbatch's Khan to be more fleshed out and dominant but that's Khan.
Other than that, Stephen F. Windon's cinematography was excellent and combined well with the director's vision. The action as you would expect from Justin was on point. The music was also great and I am beginning to love the Star Trek theme song from these movies. 50 long years and Star Trek isn't going anywhere anytime soon.