Star Trek Beyond

[ratcreature]

I had fun watching, and liked it a lot more than the last one.

The plot didn't really make sense though. I mean, the action part was okay, though I sometimes had trouble following who was where and such, but I didn't understand how the backstory of the crew of the USS Franklin and that planet in the nebula worked at all.

I mean, the USS Franklin crashed on that planet, and in that last log entry we see Edison say only three of his crew are left? And then they presumably use that alien technology, which did what exactly? It transformed them into lifeforce sucking aliens? And where did all the other people in his attack force come from? Those swarms were made of a huge number of ships. Were they the captured crew of other ships he lured in and they transformed? Why are they all following him? Are they mind controlled? Biotechnology androids the planet made, and only his second in command an actual person? (And that one could be remaining from his old crew.) I can sort of see that you could fill in some narrative that ties all this together, but it must have been cut out of the movie.

The character bits were much more enjoyable. Do you think that pendant we see McCoy wear in that party scene at the end came from Spock? That he gave him tracking jewelry like Uhura? They didn't look exactly the same, but it seemed kind of implied after Bones earlier snark about Spock giving his girlfriend a tracker, and saying he was glad Spock didn't appreciate him like that, and of course then we had the awkward h/c confessions that he does value him, and then we are shown McCoy with a pendant too... And now I sort of want Spock/Uhura/McCoy fic.

Comments

[neotoma]

I'm still not sure if I'll go watch it, but your review makes it much more likely.

[ratcreature]

You should watch it. There are a lot of funny and sweet character scenes. I'd have liked more Kirk&Spock scenes, but since they are separated in subgroups we get mostly Spock&McCoy which was also fun. I also liked Jayla as character.

[slybrarian]

There were only three actual bad guys on the planet: Krall, the other guy whose name I can't remember, and the woman who lured them there. These actually match up with the three images that the admiral had on display during her last conversation with Kirk. Krall also says the ancient technology they found was the life-transfer technology and a bunch of mining drones, which presumably are what the rest of his army are.

[ratcreature]

Huh. So all the pilots of the swarm ships are modified mining drones? And the woman only faked being a collaborator coming from a different group that Krall captured earlier, even though she looked different from Krall and his second in command?

You know, I actually watched the movie twice (I got a ticket for myself for Friday because my siblings initially said they wouldn't be able to go, and then they changed their minds on short notice, and so I went once with them on Thursday and then again on Friday.) and still didn't get the plot. I can sort of understand not wanting to drag down a movie with exposition dumps, but there has to be a happy middle.

[slybrarian]

Yeah, the woman only faked collaboration - "Do you believe every sob story you hear?" She must look different because she absorbed life from other aliens, maybe even deliberately to make the infiltration easier. I think they did make it a little too subtle.

[ratcreature]

I thought that line meant a narrower betrayal. I assumed that because she looked different that the part that she belonged to another crew that crashed on the planet (or were crashed by Krall/Edison) was still true, only that they were all with Krall's group now. Like that maybe that alien tech was drawing in ships and crews to change them for this weapons system, and only those who didn't join were drained for their energy. And that was why there were so many people.