Okay, just got back from Beyond.
Not bad actually. I'll do the pros and cons as bullet points because I'm terribly lazy.
Pros.
- Really digging Kirk and Bones.
- That new alien chick was awesome
- Alien starfleet girl with the face hugger for hair was fun
- Lots of nice character interactions, specifically between Scotty and alien lady, and Spock and Bones
- Nice to see Chekov get some screen time
- That damn space station. Good god that thing was glorious. I'd watch a 5 hour documentary just about that thing.
- Chekov's line at the end about whiskey (or scotch) being a Russian invention was the only time Chekov hearkened back to the original Chekov.
- Very cool new Enterprise at the end.
- Finally a universal translator that makes some damn sense (this will also appear on the cons list)
Cons
- Despite being a fine character in his own right, there's no similarity in personality between the two Spocks. They are completely different entities.
- The bad guy was just dumb, such a waste of Idris Elba. Boring revenge dude with a lot of convoluted nonsense as a backstory.
- The entire 3rd act was horrible (sorry Kotow). A god damn space cloud?!?! Haven't we had enough space clouds? Destroyed by Beastie Boys? Eh. And the fight with Kirk and Kral has a few cool moments but the futility of Krawl's character just rendered it meaningless to me. There were no stakes at all. We knew Kirk would win, and we (at least I) didn't care at all about Krawl, so it was just a fight to have a fight.
- They have to fall off a cliff? Ugh, what a useless scene. We didn't need the scene. Just take off, you're about to have a crazy (dumb) action scene, no need for artificial tension.
- The original cast picture at the end. Just seemed like pandering for no reason so the audience will go "LOOK THE ORIGINAL CAST THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING FOR DOING THIS".
- So they have a new universal translator, but the dog people at the beginning were speaking English? Everyone from the last two movies that we heard as English were just speaking English? Not wrll thought out.
That's all I got off the top of my head, but i'm there's a lot more I'll think of as time goes on.
So, for my movie ranking, now with this....
1. First Contact
2. Wrath of Khan
3. Voyage Home
4. Undiscovered Country
5. Search for Spock
6. Generations
7. Motion Picture
8. Insurrection
9. What does god need with a star ship?
10. Beyond (this and 9 could switch)
11. Nemesis
12. ST '09
13. Into Darkness