I realized where part of my apathy with this summer movies is coming from. Yes the overabundance of reboots/sequels/remakes is the bulk of the issue, but this then means that every week there's a big event movie. Except they're no longer big events. What once happened only a few times over the season is happening repeatedly. And the excitement is dulled as a result. These flms hafta be damn good in order to be memorable, and frankly even the better ones aren't quite living up, when they could have easily owned the summer a few years ago.

That's sort of where I fall with Star Trek Beyond. To put it simply, I have nothing really to complain about the film, but nothing really to highlight either (except maybe Chris Pine's gorgeous baby blues). I remember the firstin this series being a huge deal, with friends taking up a full row at the midnight release. Now I barely even realized it was coming until a couple days before.

Actually, there is one thing that made this stood out. It was very emotional in how it dealt with the loss of two bright stars in the galaxy: Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin. Nimoy's death occured early on enough in the process that there were some beautiful tributes written in. Yelchin's was so sudden that my heart simply broke every time I saw him on screen. I'm sure the next installment will have a fitting memorial for him, but for now, I made sure to stay long enough thru the credits to see "For Anton" at which point I ran out before I teared up.

So yeah it was a perfectly serviceable installment, I only wish that I could have been more excited for it or that it wouldn't have faded into the noise of the summer. Maybe it's time to consider less traditional release dates, similar to what Marvel has been doing...

Star Trek Beyond - \m/ \m/ \m/