Star Trek Beyond released today on the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek television series. To celebrate the golden anniversary, the make-up team based in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Dubai, set out to create 50 unique alien races to appear in the film. In reality, the final count was 53 plus all the versions of characters within each race.
The movie was the first in the Star Trek series to step away from film. The digital equipment was selected for various reasons, but the most important was its ability to extend the frame with additional information. While there are only 30 theaters that will show the extended imagery, Star Trek is being lauded for its advancements with Barco Escape.
Barco Escape projection equipment allows the theater to show the movie not only on the main front screen, but also on the two sidewalls as well. This gives the audience a sense of being in the story or location that fills their periphery. Since most of the locations are created with CGI, it was easy to extend the scenes to incorporate additional information without having to worry about film grain.
Selected theaters attached two additional screens on the sidewalls. This process was first tested with The Maze Runner in 15 theaters. Modifications from lessons learned were incorporated into the Star Trek release. It’s hard to say if the audience will appreciate being more absorbed in the visuals, or if it will just be the next gimmick in theatrical marketing.
Left to right: Chris Pine plays Kirk, Sofia Boutella plays Jaylah and Anton Yelchin plays Chekov in Star Trek Beyond from Paramount Pictures, Skydance, Bad Robot, Sneaky Shark and Perfect Storm Entertainment
The good news is that regardless of which of the five release formats you watch, including IMAX and 3D, the story is strong enough to stand on its own. The character development is in keeping with what made the series successful and the visual effects incorporate nods to Inception and Star Wars.
The story is easy to follow and the adventure fuels enough energy to excite the audience throughout the film. The character development including Scotty’s probable love interest is sufficient to make each character relatable to the audience. This juxtaposition of adrenalin, humor and honor is sure to make fans believe Rodenberry’s vision to be just around the corner: a huge society of all kinds of people and aliens co-existing peacefully.
CJ's Corner 