movie review star trek beyond

Star Trek Beyond

“There’s no relative direction in the vastness of space,” a Starfleet high mucky-muck tells Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk ( Chris Pine ) in “Star Trek Beyond.” “There’s only you.” She’s asking him whether he wants to give up his captain’s seat for a chance at a powerful desk job on the eve of his thirtieth birthday, a year younger than his father was when he died. Her language is meant to spur Kirk to look inward, and for a moment we might hope that he will, and that the film will look inward with him.

There’s a precedent for this sort of thing. Where all of the TV incarnations of “ Star Trek ” were mainly about morality and philosophy, with characterization serving as a means of examining those dramatic values, most of the big-screen film versions, including the ’80s and ’90s versions of the flagship TV show, were mainly concerned with the heroes’ personalities. The screenplays gave us detailed examinations of, say, the relationship between Kirk and his half-Vulcan first officer Mr. Spock, between Kirk and the United Federation of Planets, between Kirk and the Klingons who tormented his civilization and killed his only son, and between all the characters (Kirk especially) and the prospect of aging and death. It was more soap opera than space opera at times, but always fun to watch, sometimes moving.

What undermines “Star Trek Beyond” is that it’s ultimately not interested in taking a long look at the “you” of Kirk, Spock ( Zachary Quinto ), ship’s doctor “Bones” McCoy ( Karl Urban ), communications officer Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ), and the rest of the NCC-1701 crew. Sure, it nods in that direction. Even the worst “Star Trek” stories do. But in the end it’s mostly a good big-budget sci-fi action movie that’s been marinated in “Star Trek” flavor packets—and thus not terribly different from the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot or its sequel, “ Star Trek Into Darkness .”

“Star Trek Beyond” pits the crew of the Enterprise against another bellowing megalomaniac ( Idris Elba ) who wants to punish the United Federation of Planets for its perceived sins. It’s the best of the new “Trek” films, but it’s still an unsatisfying effort if you want “Star Trek” to be something more than a military-minded outer space action flick, with familiar, beloved characters shoehorned into a standard mix of martial arts slugfests, close-quarters firefights, and scenes of starships and cities being shredded and burned. Advance publicity hyped “Star Trek Beyond” as a return to the original series’ roots as a showcase for a bunch of eccentric personalities traveling the galaxy, ingeniously solving problems, and indulging in populist philosophizing about civilization and the frontier as they went along. But that’s not what we get here—not really.

Yes, there’s a promising setup (the Enterprise crew is held hostage by a vicious bad guy who rules a backwater planet a la Kurtz in “Heart of Darkness”). And there are suggestions of classic “Star Trek” style action-plus-characterization-plus-cleverness, and pleasing performances by a cast that has settled into each others’ rhythms, as a real-world naval crew would after years of sailing together.

But the movie never delivers on its considerable promise because it’s always in such a hurry to get to the next action scene. And aside from three magnificent setpieces—the first, crippling sneak attack by a fleet of tiny ships that swarm the Enterprise like explosive bees, and two vertigo-inducing chase-and-fight scenes in which geography goes all M.C. Escher on us—the action is not good enough to be the film’s main course. Lin, who proved in the “Fast and Furious” series that he could do great or near-great action, here substitutes wobbly camerawork, chop-chop editing and rumbling sound effects for suspense and a sense of spatial design. It’s a step up from the action in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” movies, but that’s not the sort of thing one should brag about. A climactic reprise of a certain overused Beastie Boys song might be the franchise’s low point, rivaled only by the laughable credits sequence of “Star Trek V,” which cut from a helicopter shot of a lean young stuntman scaling a craggy peak in the Pyrenees to a close-up of the 57-year-old star/director Shatner’s meaty hand in a studio, gripping a fiberglas “rock.”

Simon Pegg and Doug Jung’s screenplay provides the right amount of homage (as when Kirk grumbles after an opening action scene that he ripped his shirt again), plus Spock/McCoy odd-couple banter and some marvelous, character-based laugh lines (Scotty demands that Kirk give an opinion on one of his engineering improvisations, because “if I mess it up, I don’t want it to be just my fault”). There’s psychological nuance, irony, even a political subtext (Elba’s character, Krall, a reptilian Che Guevara-type who wants the galaxy’s “frontier” to “push back” against the Federation’s expansionism). Too bad none of these aspects are filled out with the detail they deserve. Krail’s fire-and-brimstone sermonizing is turned to nonsense by a pointless and self-defeating third act “twist”—like we need another one of those after the boneheaded fan service of “Darkness”!—and there are points late in the film where “Star Trek Beyond” seems jolted by the sudden remembrance of things that it told us it was going to deal with but didn’t.

Uhura spends most of the movie in a prison camp. Kirk, Spock and even McCoy have human moments, but they spend too much of their screen time sprinting through hallways, firing phaser pistols, and piloting spaceships while yelling and grimacing in tight closeup, like the heroes of every other science fiction-flavored action movie projected in theaters recently. Krall and other characters allude to the Federation’s fake-benevolent brand of imperialism, but unless you’re familiar with examples from elsewhere in the “Star Trek” universe or got briefed by a super-fan before buying a ticket, you’ll leave with no sense of whether the villains’ grievances are legitimate, much less if you’re supposed to feel mixed emotions at Kirk’s inevitable triumph.

Spock, whose home planet was destroyed by a renegade Romulan warlord in the first movie, suffers most from the filmmakers’ preoccupation with pew-pew-pew! a ction-adventure. For three movies now, Spock’s been carrying a crushing load of survivor’s guilt. The character’s barely disguised Jewishness, brilliantly articulated by the late Leonard Nimoy in the original TV and movie series, is more pronounced in the new franchise: he’s been turned into a holocaust survivor, part of a fragile Vulcan diaspora haunted by genocide. But the scripts seem scared of treating Spock’s predicament with the seriousness it deserves, much less daring to put it at the center of a film. Here it’s treated mainly as an explanation for why Spock can’t seem to keep a relationship going with Uhura. The death of Leonard Nimoy is integrated into the story by having Vulcan diplomats inform Spock of the death of Ambassador Spock, an alternate-universe incarnation of the character who dispensed advice and plot points to new Spock whenever the screenwriters painted themselves into a corner. The film’s method of mourning Nimoy’s Spock makes the Spockus ex machina thing worse. New Spock mourns classic Spock as if the two were dear friends who had dinner every Monday at the same Chinese restaurant.

The missteps of writing and direction are more depressing when you consider the excellence of the core cast. Quinto and Saldana give the Spock-Uhura relationship and their own spotlight moments a lot more than the film gives them. Pegg is a hoot as Scotty, colorful but never hammy, though we may justifiably raise a Spock-like eyebrow at all the times that the actor-screenwriter lets his character save the day. Pine’s Kirk seems to be morphing seamlessly into Shatner’s, complete with surprising pauses and intonations, but he’s more credible as a strong, respected leader; watch how the actor grows more calm and friendly whenever Kirk’s bridge crew is becoming more agitated. Elba is such a strong presence throughout, even near the end, that it’s a shame Krall is never granted the depth and complexity that his character keeps threatening to disclose.

At this point it’s worth asking what, if anything, this franchise is good for besides generating cash for Paramount and its above-the-line talent. Everything that made the original TV series and its follow-ups, small- and big-screen, seem so open-hearted, intelligent and playful is marginalized to make room for hyperactively edited action scenes and displays of hardware and production design. These are technically state-of-the-art but ultimately not all that different from what you see in most other CGI-driven action pictures, superhero as well as sci-fi—long, loud spectacles that are filled with people fighting, blowing up cities and planets, and crashing things into other things, instead of finding some other, more surprising way to move the plot along. What’s the point of giving up pleasures that the “Star Trek” franchise is good at providing, to make more room for pleasures that most big-budget science fiction and fantasy already give us, month after month and year after year? Why boldly go where everyone else is already going?

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

Alice Eve as Dr. Carol Marcus
Simon Pegg as Scotty
Chris Pine as Kirk
Zoe Saldana as Uhura
Idris Elba as Krall
Sofia Boutella as Jaylah
Zachary Quinto as Spock
Karl Urban as Bones
John Cho as Sulu
Anton Yelchin as Chekov
Deep Roy as Keenser
Dylan Highsmith
Greg D’Auria
Kelly Matsumoto
Steven Sprung

Writer (television series "Star Trek")

Gene Roddenberry

Writer (uncredited)

John D. Payne
Patrick McKay
Roberto Orci
Michael Giacchino

Cinematographer

Stephen F. Windon

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Star Trek Beyond Reviews

Star Trek Beyond isn’t a bad film by any means, but its contrivances and off-focused writing stifles the film’s momentum and kills all continuity from the previous two films.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 2, 2024

The Best Star Trek film in years!

Full Review | Aug 7, 2023

“Beyond” is a fun and satisfying installment that fits nicely within the new franchise vision.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

Star Trek Beyond finds a way to deconstruct what we love about the franchise...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2022

Appropriately, the film feels like a top-notch episode from the series - in all the right ways.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 11, 2022

Star Trek Beyond despite its flaws is a fine installment in the rebooted franchise. The film will garner approval from its casual and hardcore fans and will be just the fill cinephiles need if youre looking for an entertaining film this weekend.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 18, 2022

With the same level of heroism and determination exhibited by Enterprise crew members as they overcame Klingons, Romulans and William Shatner's stint in the director's chair, this overcomes a troubled history to emerge as another winner in the franchise.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 18, 2021

The breeziest and most enjoyable film of the [Kelvin] Timeline [and] the one most reminiscent of the beloved 1960s television show.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 14, 2021

Minor gripes aren't enough to spoil a smartly-paced movie which loads its crowd-pleasing action sequences with emotional repercussions that keep you fully invested.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 9, 2021

For all the talk of fighting humanity's battles, this is the least human Star Trek yet.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 4, 2021

The tension is fleeting, especially when the majority of action sequences are so heavily augmented by CG that any genuine stunts disappear in the visual chaos.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 5, 2020

Star Trek Beyond also serves as a fitting and respectful end for these group of characters. Just like what Skyfall did for James Bond on their 50th anniversary, this is the real start of the adventures of the Starship Enterprise.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2020

It...has a very classic "Trek" feel...It has excitement and humor, introduces us to several new alien species and has a terrific mean and scary villain. Everything a good Star Trek story needs.

Full Review | Jul 14, 2020

Maybe the rebooted franchise has more left in the tank than we thought.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 2, 2020

The film may not go beyond what we've already seen, but as a sci-fi piece of entertainment, it knows when to use the Star Trek formula to deliver scenes that are sometimes surprising. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 26, 2020

An admirably modest, more character-driven Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond foregrounds its characters and emotions over grandstanding action sequences - most of the time, anyway.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 31, 2020

I found this movie to be very entertaining.

Full Review | May 6, 2020

I found it really campy and silly and fun.

The newest entry in the franchise, Star Trek Beyond, may lack some of the stately grandeur of OG Trek, but it's got optimism in spades.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2020

Star Trek Beyond carries Roddenberry's conviction that we can solve our problems by sticking together and applying equal parts compassion and logic, and its optimism is catchy.

Full Review | Jan 14, 2020

'Star Trek Beyond' boldly brings the fun back to Trek (spoiler-free review)

"Beyond" stumbles at the finishing line, but it's an excellent capstone to the rebooted Trek trilogy.

Simon Pegg, in his seminal geek sitcom " Spaced ", said, "It's a fact, sure as day follows night, sure as eggs is eggs, sure as every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is..." Well, not good.

Lucky him, he got to share screenplay duties with Doug Jung on " Star Trek Beyond ", the third movie in the rebooted series and the 13th installment in the Star Trek franchise overall. On Star Trek's 50th anniversary. But Pegg is a nerd's nerd, and he's broken his own rule with "Beyond". It's by no means perfect, but it brought back the fun, the freshness and the Trekness so sorely lacking in 2013's " Star Trek Into Darkness ".

On this particular voyage of the starship Enterprise, Kirk, Spock and company are three years into their five-year mission to explore deep space, and they're chugging along with a little listlessness and reluctance. Before long, the crew find themselves marooned on a hostile alien planet with no way to call for help and staring down the alien overlord Krall.

Captain Kirk and the mysterious Jaylah boldly go beyond in our exclusive art by comic artist Des Taylor.

The best thing about scattering the crew across an alien world is exploring relationships between characters who often don't get to share the screen. Chris Pine's Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock share only a few pivotal scenes, and it's good to see their lackluster chemistry taking a backseat.

In its place, scribes Pegg and Jung get to show off how well they understand the crew of the Enterprise. From McCoy and Spock's buddy-cop moments to Kirk and Scotty on rescue-mission duties, those relationships are where the movie really comes alive.

Beam me up, Jaylah. Scotty's jaw drops down as Jaylah's Maglite goes up.

Director Justin Lin, of " Fast and Furious " fame, is at the helm this time, and his influence is immediately obvious. The action sequences are packed in, and they're without exception brilliantly conceived, playing with motorcycles and gravity manipulation, to name a few.

A few of the fights staged on the ship interiors are cluttered and confusingly shot, but all's forgiven once you see the ships in action from the outside. The swarms of enemy ships dancing around the Enterprise look simply spectacular.

Idris Elba's menacing Krall serves as an excellent foil to Kirk, as the captain of the Enterprise struggles with his dedication to his crew and mission. Sadly, Krall needs more screen time than he gets, and the movie fumbles with a rushed explanation of his motives and origin.

That's par for the course though, with a couple of side characters who do things that would make infinitely more sense if we were given time to learn about them. Thankfully, the movie doesn't really live or die by these episodes.

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It's all about the crew, and it's clear that's where the screen time went. The new generation is as close to perfectly cast as can be, and three movies in, it's clear these characters are like a second skin for the actors. There's a dragged-out, saccharine epilogue to sit through once the business of saving the day is said and done. It's a forgivable indulgence in the end, with 50 years of Trek history to celebrate and a trilogy to farewell. (Not that the reboot series is ending here: there's interesting casting info out about the fourth movie .) And the fan service is still there, from a photo of the original cast in their Federation finery to more subtle nods like a cameo appearance by Sulu's daughter Demora.

"Beyond" is a Trek movie through and through, right down to the technobabble-infused plan to deal with Krall's fleet of enemy ships. Make no mistake, that one sequence is going to go down as one of the most divisive in Star Trek history. And it'd be completely ridiculous if it weren't perfectly executed in the pursuit of such reckless fun.

That's the real magic of "Beyond" -- Lin, Jung and Pegg know that it's OK to have fun with Star Trek, and they prove that 50 years on, the crew of the Enterprise has plenty left to give.

Cast & crew
User reviews

Star Trek Beyond

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the te... Read all The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test. The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

Gene Roddenberry
Zachary Quinto
906 User reviews
497 Critic reviews
68 Metascore
3 wins & 29 nominations total

Top cast 85

Captain James T. Kirk

Commander Spock

Doctor 'Bones' McCoy

Lieutenant Uhura

Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott

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Trivia After production on the film was completed, and a month before the release, Anton Yelchin died in a freak vehicle accident at age 27. During the ending credits, there is a dedication that reads, "For Anton." J.J. Abrams announced that Chekov would not be recast, "I would say you can't replace him. There will be no new casting. I can't imagine that, and I think Anton deserves better."
Goofs The number of ships and soldiers that the enemy has in its swarm changes dramatically during the final battle, from a few thousand to tens/hundreds of thousands when they attack the station. However, previously in the film, it is stated that the planet has deep and large underground caverns so it is entirely possible that there were more ships underground. Also, the number of soldiers that would be needed to pilot all the ships would be huge as it was shown that they contain at least one soldier in each ship. But when they were watching the video logs near the film's ending, Captain Edison clearly states that they found drones. It is quite possible that the bulk of the enemy fleet is made up of drones and controlled by the hive mind that the music disrupts.

Doctor 'Bones' McCoy : [after removing shrapnel from Spock] Yeah. They say it hurts less if it's a surprise.

Commander Spock : If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be horseshit.

Crazy credits There is a giant green energy-hand, in the closing credits, mentioned in the movie as one of the possibilities for a ship lost in space.
Connections Featured in Nostalgia Critic: How Right Are Trailers? (2016)
Soundtracks Theme from 'Star Trek' TV Series Written by Alexander Courage & Gene Roddenberry

User reviews 906

thetruemrwalker
Nov 7, 2016
How long is Star Trek Beyond? Powered by Alexa
What happened to Carol Marcus from Star Trek Into Darkness?
Why would Edison become captain of a warp-4 vessel if he had fought in the Xindi War (when ships were capable of warp 5)?
July 22, 2016 (United States)
United States
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Star Trek sin límites
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Paramount Pictures
Skydance Media
Alibaba Pictures Group
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$185,000,000 (estimated)
$158,848,340
$59,253,211
Jul 24, 2016
$343,471,816

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Surround 7.1
Dolby Digital
IMAX 6-Track
2.35 : 1 (original ratio)
2.39 : 1 (original ratio)

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‘Star Trek Beyond’ Review: The Franchise’s Final Frontier

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Despite the futuristic tilt in the title, Star Trek Beyond works best when it boldly goes retro. The third chapter in the rebooted Star Trek franchise, with J.J. Abrams ceding the captain’s chair to Justin Lin, is plenty fast and furious (Lin directed four of those adrenalized F&F babies). But it also openly gives its heart to what came before; any Trekkie that doesn’t choke up at this 50th-anniversary edition is no longer in the club. Feelings run deep stemming from the death last year of original Spock Leonard Nimoy at 83 and for Anton Yelchin, as the Russian navigator Chekov, who died last month at 27 in a tragic accident . The movie is rightly dedicated to both of them.

And quite a movie it is. Playing like a mega-budgeted episode of the Gene Roddenberry TV series that took the time to develop characters, Star Trek Beyond may be hell on short attention spans. But patience and faith yield surprising dividends. The movie finds both Captain Kirk ( Chris Pine ) and Spock ( Zachary Quinto ) in a thoughtful mode: In the middle of a five-year tour for the Federation, Kirk wonders if he wants to be promoted to Vice-Admiral. He’d rather the job went to Spock, who’s thinking — after the death of Spock Prime (Nimoy) and his breakup with Uhura (Zoe Saldana) — that he should turn away from his human side and go back to Vulcan to start a family there. (Survival of the species and all that.) Kudos to Pine and Quinto, who bring new depth and feeling to their roles.

Don’t worry: The angst evaporates when the Starship Enterprise gets attacked. Screenwriters Doug Jung and Simon Pegg , who plays Scotty, know the rules of engagement. While docking at the utopian spaceport of Yorktown, where alien cultures live in harmony and Sulu (John Cho) shares a hug with his husband and their daughter (yes, he’s gay, even if the original Sulu George Takei, himself gay, doesn’t like it), the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission that turns into an ambush. An enemy horde, led by the fearsome Krall ( Idris Elba ), blows the Enterprise to pieces, leaving the crew separated and stranded on the alien planet of Altamid.

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That’s the setup, which allows for some playful pairings. Spock and Bones (Karl Urban, terrific) snipe at each other hilariously. Kirk and Chekov ( damn, that Yelchin is good ) set out to rescue the captured Uhura and Sulu. And Scotty matches wits with Jaylah (a scene-stealing Sofia Boutella from Kingsman: The Secret Service ), an alien notorious for her white-and-black warpaint, attitude for days and combat skills accentuated by a trove of old-ass music called rap ( “ I like the beats and the screaming”). Scotty calls this dynamo “lassie.” He would.

Those are a lot of plot points to juggle. Luckily, Lin doesn’t drop too many balls, and the actors don’t just go through the motions. Elba makes a fierce villain, even when mostly buried under layers of prosthetics. (Why are we doing this to many of our best, most expressive actors? Look at Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises and Oscar Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse. It’s like acting with a paper bag over your head. Elba can do it — he can do anything — but it’s a trend I’d like to see fade.)

Lin pulls out all the VFX stops in the final siege at Yorktown, a sequence that shatters the rafters. Yet, Star Trek Beyond manages to knock you for a bigger loop with just the sight of one man staring at a photograph. You’ll know it the moment you see it. Come to Star Trek Beyond for the pow; stay for the emotional wipeout.

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Star Trek Beyond: EW review

If you’re looking for a witty workplace sitcom set on a futuristic starship, the latest exploits featuring the crew of the Enterprise, Star Trek Beyond , won’t disappoint. But it has to be asked: Is that really why most of us go to see a Star Trek film? The third installment since J.J. Abrams seamlessly rebooted the beloved sci-fi franchise seven years ago, Beyond is more fun than deep. It’s lightweight, zero-gravity Trek that is, for the most part, devoid of the sort of Big Ideas and knotty existential questions that creator Gene Roddenberry specialized in. You could argue that the philosophical, political, and sociological subtext is what always set his universe (and its big- and small-screen iterations) apart from other tech-heavy space adventures. Maybe that’s why Beyond feels slightly insubstantial.

Say what you want about Abrams, who directed the last two Trek movies, but he’s always been Hollywood’s savviest and most attuned makeover artist. Whether he was spit-polishing the Mission: Impossible saga in M:I III or course-correcting Star Wars with the what’s-old-is-new The Force Awakens , he’s always had an intuitive grasp of the hearts and minds of diehard fanboys and girls. He knows what they want and gives it to them. Abrams is just a producer this time around. The directorial reins have been passed to Justin Lin, a giddy, rock’em, sock’em daredevil best known for helming the best of the Fast & Furious films. And maybe that’s the problem. He’s a maestro of visceral thrills and giddy superficiality, but that’s always been a secondary or tertiary concern with Trek . It also might not have helped that Beyond ‘s script was co-written by Simon Pegg — an unassailably zealous Trek disciple who moonlights on-screen playing engineer Scotty, but whose behind-the-scenes credits skew towards the comedic. In Beyond , Lin brings his action chops and Pegg the back-of-the-classroom humor, but what’s missing is something that’s harder to manufacture: soul.

As the new film kicks off, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk is on a diplomatic mission with a hostile council of pint-sized aliens that goes awry in slapstick fashion. And even though Pine has gotten better and better at capturing William Shatner’s tongue-in-cheek Shatnerness with each outing, it’s an ominously shaky start. It plays more like a lost scene from Galaxy Quest than Trek . When he returns to the Enterprise, Kirk explains through voiceover that after a long haul in deep space, he and the rest of the crew are mired in a bit of a funk. The aimlessness of their five-year mission has resulted in a sort of spiritual drift, a malaise. Crewmembers with too much time on their hands have been swept up into workplace romances, spats, and a general loss of purpose. What they desperately need is an assignment with stakes.

And shortly after docking at a glitzy new Federation starbase, they get one. A female alien, who sent an urgent distress call reporting that her ship’s crew had been attacked and taken hostage by a hostile warrior race led by a barking, belligerent figure named Krall, needs their assistance. Since the baddie is played by Idris Elba (virtually unrecognizable at first beneath heaps of reptilian latex and putty), our hopes are raised. It’s up to Kirk and Co. to take him down. As the familiar faces saddle up (Pine’s Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Spock, Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, Pegg’s Scotty, John Cho’s Sulu, Karl Urban’s Bones, and the late Anton Yelchin’s Chekov), the Enterprise navigates through an awe-less nebula and squares off against Krall, who’s after some mysterious alien weapon of mass destruction that might as well just be called “The MacGuffin” or “The Whatzit.”

Without treading into spoiler territory, the crew of the Enterprise beam down to their new enemy’s planet and are partnered off into teams of two to all play their part in thwarting the barking, avenging Krall. But you begin to wonder, What is Krall avenging? Where’s his Khan speech? Being hip to his motivation might have helped up the stakes of the story. But it isn’t revealed until way too late in the film. Meanwhile, the “Big Ideas” found in the best chapters in the Trek canon are nowhere to be found. Instead, what we get are mini-arcs of character development: The on-again/off-again romance between Spock and Uhura; the love-hate bond between Bones and Spock; the subtle and well-handled revelation that Sulu is gay (no surprise to anyone tracking Trek news lately… but it’s still a resonant moment). These are, by far, the best moments in Beyond . After so many missions spent with the crew of the Enterprise, it’s interesting for fans to get a glimpse into their lives beyond the bridge. And even some new faces, such as Sofia Boutella’s kabuki-skinned alien she-warrior Jaylah, are well drawn and exciting additions.

Ultimately, Beyond is a movie about characters — and character. But that’s half the battle. The other half of the battle is… battle. And Lin, who has such a strong track record with vehicular mayhem, doesn’t bring his “A” game. The entire rescue mission turns out to be a bit of a bust — and kind of a silly one too, with eye-rolling, rib-nudging anachronisms that feel totally out of place in this franchise. The music of Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys turns up on the soundtrack in ways that, I suspect, will give some strict-constructionist Trekkers a cardiac infarction. And Kirk jumps on the back of an antique 20th-century motorcycle at one key moment to go all Steve McQueen in The Great Escape . (As an aside, this is the second time in the last three films when Pine’s Kirk either gets behind the wheel of a Detroit muscle car or on top of a chopper. Once, I can buy. Twice, just seems… weird. I get that maybe Pine likes going fast on cool old-school toys, but this is supposed to be the 23rd century. Maybe he needs to exercise this passion in a different, more contemporary franchise).

I don’t want to sound too nit-picky and churlish. But the Trekverse is something that really means something to people. For them, Beyond is a fine movie, it’s just not a very good Star Trek movie. After all, as summer releases have gotten more and more and sensational and trivial, the Trek franchise could always be counted on to serve up some smarts along with its sci-fi action beats. With Beyond , it feels like just another summer tentpole with not enough going on underneath the tent. C+

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‘star trek beyond’: film review.

Director Justin Lin assumes command from J.J. Abrams on this third installment of the sci-fi series reboot, which pits the Enterprise crew against a brutal Idris Elba.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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J.J. Abrams reanimated a dormant sci-fi franchise for the big screen with his propulsive 2009 origin story, Star Trek , but then shifted into neutral for the humdrum 2013 follow-up, Star Trek Into Darkness , a regimented blockbuster that felt hollow and heavy beneath all its noise and brawn. With Fast & Furious veteran Justin Lin stepping in as director, the third reboot installment, Star Trek Beyond , regains momentum, and not just in the obvious area of its muscular action set-pieces. The script injects a welcome strain of humor that’s true to the original Gene Roddenberry creation, delivering nostalgia without stiff veneration.

The previous two installments grossed a collective $853 million worldwide for Paramount, and this latest entry — opening July 22 in the 50th anniversary year of the TV series debut on NBC — should significantly sweeten that haul.

Release date: Jul 22, 2016

Whether it will satisfy rabid Trekkers remains to be seen, though even for casual followers (like me), the film’s double dedication packs an emotional punch. An end credits title card reading, “In loving memory of Leonard Nimoy, ” is followed by a separate card that states simply, “For Anton.”

Both those tributes are echoed in the movie itself, in a brief but eloquent farewell salute to Nimoy’s Ambassador Spock (and later, to the entire original crew of the Starship Enterprise), and in the boyish enthusiasm and optimistic spirit of Russian shipmate Pavel Chekov, played by Anton Yelchin in one of his final screen appearances before his untimely death last month at age 27. Scenes that show the young Chekov looking up to Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk when they are stranded together on a hostile planet acquire added poignancy.

The script by Simon Pegg (expanding his duties beyond his onscreen role as engineer Montgomery Scott) and Doug Jung also provides a stirring reaffirmation of the original 1960s vision of a utopian fantasy, ruled by traditional Federation ideals of peace and intergalactic unity.

That makes the much-debated revelation of a gay Sulu ( John Cho ) entirely germane to the spirit of a liberal-leaning series that presented one of the first interracial kisses on American network TV. While Sulu’s partner (played by co-writer Jung) has no dialogue , he’s seen three times with the couple’s daughter in the populous Federation starbase Yorktown, upping the stakes for Sulu when that idyllic, multicultural future-world comes under threat. Home and family have always been important motifs in the Star Trek mythology, and the pleasingly unemphatic presentation here of a gay family unit is a natural, progressive extension of the inclusive universe that Roddenberry conceived. Hysterical homophobes and traditionalists need to shut the hell up.

'Star Trek': The Story of the Most Daring Cliffhanger in 'Next Generation' History

A technical whizz and a take-charge fighter with impressive kickboxing moves, Jaylah’s look has a touch of Iggy Azalea but her taste in music runs more toward the vintage hip-hop of Public Enemy, “Fight the Power” being her anthem of choice. She’s a terrific new addition to the ensemble, played with a sexy sneer by the lithe Boutella. She also seems a promising potential love interest for Scotty in future installments, if only he’d stop calling her “lassie.”

Lin directs with his foot often jammed on the accelerator, careening from one physical or aerial clash to the next, where the densely packed movie could sometimes stand to take a breath. But even if a team of four editors would normally spell trouble, the pacing, structure and crescendos of suspense are assured, with Michael Giacchino’s forceful score pumping up the action. However, there’s also no shortage of intimate, character-driven moments. And while the story isn’t without confusing elements, as warmongering intergalactic blitzes go, it’s coherent enough.

Shot by Lin’s regular Fast & Furious collaborator Stephen F. Windon, the visuals take robust advantage of the big Imax canvas, and the special-effects work is first-rate, even if the trippy, bee-like swarms of Krall’s destroyer pods become somewhat unrelenting as an image of enveloping darkness. However, that yields a strategy to disorient the swarm by blasting them with some Beastie Boys at max volume — “Is that classical music?” asks a perplexed Bones — which feeds into the film’s affectionate embrace of throwback relics, from a dusty motorcycle to an antiquated Federation spaceship from the distant 2160s.

Rihanna Releases Cosmic Video for 'Sledgehammer' From 'Star Trek Beyond'

One of the chief strengths of the reboot series remains its appealing young cast, who approach their iconic characters with respect while keeping their performances loose, enlivening their camaraderie with reciprocal warmth and understated humor. Elba’s fierce charisma at first seems obscured beneath layers of prosthetic armor and a Darth Vader-esque heavy-breather voicebox (there are nods to both the Star Wars and Alien universes). But the actor’s powerful physicality is evident throughout, and he gets to explore a fuller range in the climactic scenes, as Krall’s true identity is revealed.

While Beyond won’t unseat 1982’s thrilling The Wrath of Khan as the gold standard for Star Trek movies, it’s a highly entertaining entry guaranteed to give the franchise continuing life.

Distributor: Paramount Production companies: Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, Bad Robot Productions , Perfect Storm Entertainment, Sneaky Shark Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg , Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin , Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella, Lydia Wilson, Joe Taslim, Shohreh Aghdashloo Director: Justin Lin Screenwriters: Simon Pegg, Doug Jung, based on Star Trek , created by Gene Roddenberry Producers: J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Bryan Burk Executive producers: Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Tommy Harper Director of photography: Stephen F. Windon Production designer: Thomas E. Sanders Costume designer: Sanja Hays Music: Michael Giacchino Editors: Greg D’Auria, Dylan Highsmith, Kelly Matsumoto, Steven Sprung Visual effects supervisor: Peter Chiang Special makeup effects: Joel Harlow Casting: April Webster, Alyssa Weisberg

Rated PG-13, 122 minutes

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‘Star Trek Beyond’ Review: A Spectacular Movie About Nothing

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Despite an expansive universe stretched across over a dozen feature films and numerous television series, the appeal of “Star Trek” is pretty straightforward: a motley group of colorful characters hurtle through mini-adventures in deep space, sustained as much by their chemistry as the variety of alien civilizations in their path. The first two films in the rebooted franchise attempted to raise the stakes with various cataclysmic events threatening its cast of fresh faces, but “ Star Trek Beyond ” goes back to the television roots. Spectacular as it looks, this is a $150 million blockbuster about nothing.

A lighter, funnier effort than the previous installments, “Star Trek Beyond” reflects a changing of the guard. With JJ Abrams passing the baton to Justin Lin , the latest entry plays like a CGI-heavy “Fast and the Furious” movie set in the future, with fancy gadgetry and fast-paced showdowns taking prominence over plot. Simon Pegg does double-duty, returning to the role of Scotty and co-writing the screenplay with Doug Jung. The result has Lin’s eye for outstanding set pieces and Pegg’s ear for injecting familiar genre tropes with wit. There’s an odd disconnect between the movie’s undercooked conflict and its epic scale, to the point where it barely exists as more than a series of flashy moments. But its trivial qualities come as something of a relief — this is a movie engineered to avoid overextending its allure, which differs greatly from so many of its summer movie peers that do exactly that.

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The overall inconsequential nature of “Star Trek Beyond” stands in stark contrast to 2013’s sprawling “Star Trek Into Darkness,” in which rising Starfleet leader Captain Kirk ( Chris Pine ) at one point loses his job, and at another briefly loses his life. At the beginning of “Star Trek Beyond,” he’s faced with a more immediate issue: Boredom. Three years into a planned five-year mission to explore the cosmos, the Captain explains in his starlog intro that boldly going where no man has gone before can get awfully redundant sometimes.

Lin’s camera glides beautifully through the Starship Enterprise, capturing the various familiar members of the crew — Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho), Scotty, and Chekhov (the late Anton Yelchin, sadly given little to do in a thankless role). They’re all still there, pressing buttons, sharing drinks, beaming about on unspecified missions. “What is it we’re trying to accomplish?” Kirk wonders, and the answer just dangles there.

But then just enough happens to generate the semblance of high stakes: A mysterious alien object stored in the ship’s hull generates the interest of the villainous Krall (Idris Elba, under layers of makeup that suggest Klingon by way of triceratops), a criminal leader of unknown origins who invades the ship and uses his mechanical space army to take down the starship. The ensuing crash sequence drags on for minutes on end, unfolding as a breathless series of daring maneuvers, flying bodies and flaming debris that, for a brief moment, suggest real peril for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, once the Enterprise stops moving, the movie grinds to a halt as well. Lin grounds the crew on a boring planet alongside a lame bad guy. Krall’s eerie ability to sap energy from his prisoners receives just one tossed-off scene, and the reasons behind his evil intentions receive only a pithy explanation in the final act. Much of the movie finds various members of the Starship roaming the planet trying to figure out ideas for escaping it. This kind of scenario often sustained single episodes of the original show, but struggles to congeal as a single 142 minute package.

Per usual, some interactions generate more sparks than others. At first alone in the woods, Scotty comes across fierce survivalist Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a pale-faced warrior apparently inspired by Jennifer Laurence’s individualistic teen in “Winter’s Bone.” Jaylah’s not the most original ass-kicker around, but her ability to manipulate invisibility fields and bound about the woodsy terrain with ease provides the movie with a nice burst of attitude.

Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto in Star Trek Beyond

The rest of the cast just toys around, making it clear just how much these movies are driven by personalities. Much has been made in news reports about the decision to turn Sulu gay, a revelation that fills approximately three seconds of screen time. That’s as it should. Even as the last two films emphasized Kirk’s challenges with his father’s legacy in the captain’s chair, the core “Star Trek” cast have very little in the way of backstories. They’re defined by their exchanges with each other: Forget about Spock’s complicated backstory as a member of the Vulcan race; the stone-faced character’s big challenge in “Star Trek Beyond” is his relationship troubles with Uhura, and when he winds up stranded on the planet alongside the surly Dr. McCoy, the doctor takes on new duties as a shrink.

When they’re done feuding and teasing each other, the movie turns back to its bare-bones plot. Eventually, the survivors gather at a ramshackle base to plot a means of overtaking the Starship from the bad guys, yielding another set piece — this one based around motorcycles and jump cables — before Kirk finds an excuse to blast “Sabotage” for a breezy sequence that plays like a 3D “Space Invaders.”

Toss in a few more vibrant alien species and geeky one-liners (“There’s no relative direction in space, you have only yourself”) and voil à : While “Star Trek Beyond” lacks a center, it compensates with an endless parade of distractions. When the movie moves along at a breezy clip, it’s partly because it feels so purposeless. The central threat revolves around the most explicit MacGuffin in recent memory (a box that contains some enigmatic thing of unknown destructive potential that many different people want to get their hands on), and yet that’s enough to let the strengths stand out, particularly the stunning effects work.

The massive space port Yorktown is a swirling helix of human activity, while the Enterprise itself speeds through hyperspace in shiny closeups that would have been unthinkable just a few years back. As a franchise that celebrates technological progress, it’s only appropriate that the “Star Trek” movies have become a shining example of just that.

Nevertheless, this playful, meandering saga ultimately arrives at a bland third act finale featuring the so-called “Climbing Killer Syndrome” in which the antagonist must irrationally flee to an inescapable high elevation while explaining his entire motive. Toss in a tenuous connection to some earlier “Star Trek” entries to keep the series’ street cred in check and everybody gets to go home happy.

Nothing about this polished movie suggests the slightest attempt to reinvent the wheel. If “Star Trek Beyond” existed outside the arena of reboots and sequels that mandated its existence, the movie’s casual air might be downright radical for such an extensive production. Instead, it’s just a sturdy riff on the same old routine.

“Star Trek Beyond” opens nationwide on July 21.

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Review: ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Sticks to Its Brand. That’s Not Necessarily Bad.

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By A.O. Scott

July 20, 2016

Musing in his Captain’s Log as his birthday approaches, James Tiberius Kirk, his eyes as blue as the lens flare that accompanies the first shot of the Starship Enterprise, finds himself in a funk. “Things are starting to feel a little … episodic,” he confesses, in what even a sympathetic viewer might interpret as a meta-statement, a confession of franchise fatigue. Chris Pine, who has played Kirk since the big-screen reboot in 2009 , is on his third voyage. This character, originated by William Shatner, has endured a lot more. The larger “Star Trek” enterprise has been boldly going on for a half-century, and more hours of television and cinema than I possess the Googling acumen to tally.

So you can understand why James T., a good soldier and also a bit of a loose cannon, might want to break out of the rut, and the title of the latest movie, “Star Trek Beyond,” teases the audience with the promise of novelty and risk. It’s not necessarily a criticism to note that not much materializes. Directed by the action maven Justin Lin from a script by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, the film answers the question “Beyond what?” with a diffident “Well, nothing, really. Don’t worry!” It should have been called “Star Trek Within” in honor of its determination to color inside the lines, obeying the ironclad conventions of brand and genre.

Which is not, in itself, a bad thing. Not every wheel needs reinventing, and one of the abiding pleasures of “Star Trek,” in its old and newer iterations, lies in its balance of stubborn consistency and canny inventiveness. The characters never change, but the stakes can shift wildly from one adventure to the next. Fans love “Star Trek” precisely because of its episodic nature, which allows for a certain amount of variation in theme and tone. Sometimes the future of the universe hangs in the balance. Sometimes Kirk and his crew have to deal with local disputes and personnel issues. Or weird random stuff, like tribbles or Joan Collins -related time travel.

Unfortunately, 21st-century big-budget action movies are made according to a more rigid template, and “Beyond” follows its immediate predecessors, “Star Trek” and “Into Darkness” (both directed by J. J. Abrams), in sacrificing some of the old spirit to blockbuster imperatives. The Hollywood rule book stipulates that the climactic sequence should involve the noisy destruction of a lot of buildings and an extended hand-to-hand fight between the good guy and the main villain. The villain should be motivated by the usual villainous grudge. Millions of lives should be in danger, and the actual casualties should be numerous and filmed bloodlessly enough to preserve the PG-13 rating.

Movie Review: ‘Star Trek Beyond’

The times critic a.o. scott reviews “star trek beyond.”.

Up until the tedious and bombastic finish, though, you can have a pretty good time. In his work on the “Fast and Furious” movies, Mr. Lin has shown a playful willingness to extend — and, if necessary, suspend — the laws of physics, and his visual brashness can be a refreshing antidote to Mr. Abrams’s fussy tries to combine digital spectacle with old-fashioned cinematic discipline.

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Star trek beyond.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 21 Reviews
Kids Say 24 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Violent but exciting adventure honors teamwork, diversity.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 12+?

Sci-fi/fantasy violence. Big battles in space, crashing, explosions. Hand-to-han

Infrequent language includes a few uses of "s--t" ("horses--t"), plus "damn," "h

Kiss on the cheek (two romantic leads spend the movie in a fight). Other brief s

Characters drink fancy scotch or alien brandy for enjoyment. A character drinks

Any Positive Content?

The movie celebrates teamwork, as well as loyalty to each team member. Each memb

Though the focus is on teamwork -- and no individual characters really stand out

Violence & Scariness

Sci-fi/fantasy violence. Big battles in space, crashing, explosions. Hand-to-hand fighting, martial arts fighting. Laser-gun shooting. Character impaled with a small chunk of metal. Cauterizing wound with heated metal. Minor characters injured/dead. Bad guys torture good guys. Some bloody scratches. Frequent peril/danger.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent language includes a few uses of "s--t" ("horses--t"), plus "damn," "hell," "crap," "bastard," and "my God" (as an exclamation).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kiss on the cheek (two romantic leads spend the movie in a fight). Other brief scenes show a flirtation in a corridor and a shot of a woman throwing a shirtless man out of her cabin/quarters.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink fancy scotch or alien brandy for enjoyment. A character drinks to "take the edge off"; she's seen with many empty glasses on a table in front of her.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie celebrates teamwork, as well as loyalty to each team member. Each member's strengths are used in a way that benefits the whole. The group provides encouragement and a positive atmosphere in which members can thrive. The movie also champions diversity. On the downside, revenge is also a major theme.

Positive Role Models

Though the focus is on teamwork -- and no individual characters really stand out from the others -- they all go out of their way to protect their buddies, risking danger to save others. The cast is notably diverse.

Parents need to know that Star Trek Beyond is the 13th Star Trek movie overall, the third installment since 2009's big-budget series reboot , and the first directed by Justin Lin (of the Fast & Furious franchise). There's plenty of big, boomy sci-fi/fantasy action violence, including space battles, crashes, explosions, minor characters being hurt or killed, hand-to-hand and martial arts fighting, and a mean, angry bad guy. A major character is injured, and there's a painful but comical scene involving his impalement wound. Language is infrequent but does include a couple of uses of "horses--t," as well as "damn," "hell," "bastard," and "my God." Two characters in a romantic relationship spend this movie in a fight, so only a kiss on the cheek is shown between them; there's also a brief scene of a woman throwing a shirtless man out of her cabin/quarters. Characters occasionally drink fine scotch or other spirits, but mainly for enjoyment, though one character does try to get drunk. Overall, the movie's good attitude and strong messages related to teamwork and diversity overcome its iffy material, making it a great pick for older tweens and up. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (21)
Kids say (24)

Based on 21 parent reviews

Star Trek 3

What's the story.

Deep into their five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and civilizations, the crew of the starship Enterprise -- Sulu ( John Cho ), Scotty ( Simon Pegg ), Captain Kirk ( Chris Pine ), Mr. Spock ( Zachary Quinto ), Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ), Dr. "Bones" McCoy ( Karl Urban ), and Chekov ( Anton Yelchin ) -- is beginning to feel a bit restless and bored in STAR TREK BEYOND. Unfortunately, their next mission turns out to be a trap; the Enterprise is attacked by a swarm of man-sized ships, reducing it to smithereens and standing the crew on a nearby alien planet. There, they meet an alien named Jaylah ( Sofia Boutella ) and a vengeful creature known as Krall ( Idris Elba ). Can the team discover Krall's plan and stop him before it's too late?

Is It Any Good?

The 13th overall movie in the Star Trek franchise turns out to be good luck for everyone. It's a fresh, satisfying return to the beloved characters of the 1966-1969 TV series and to a rousing sense of teamwork. Director Justin Lin , who made four of the first seven Fast & Furious movies, somehow finds a balance between recklessness and entertainment. He provides several gargantuan action sequences that aren't exactly flawless but are exhilarating nonetheless.

It certainly helps that co-writers Pegg and Doug Jung bring nerdy goodness to the movie, with a story that's worthy of the old show and an emotionally satisfying equilibrium among the characters. Star Trek Beyond recalls Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in that it corrects the misguided slip-ups that came before it, erasing the showboating and awkwardness of the last few movies and remembering the essence of what made these characters great in the first place.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Star Trek Beyond 's violence . How intense is it? Does the relative lack of blood affect its impact? What is the impact of media violence on kids?

How do the characters show teamwork ? Why is that an important character strength ? In what scenes do characters help each other?

There's quite a bit of diversity in the cast, both mirroring and improving on the original series. Why does having diverse media role models matter ?

Talk about revenge, which is a major theme in the film. Is it ever justified to hurt others in the name of revenge? How much of the movie's violence can be traced back to that motivation?

Why does Star Trek have such an enduring appeal? What makes people become such faithful fans? How does this installment compare to the older movies and TV shows?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 22, 2016
On DVD or streaming : November 1, 2016
Cast : Chris Pine , Zoe Saldana , Simon Pegg , Karl Urban , Idris Elba , Zachary Quinto
Director : Justin Lin
Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Female actors, Black actors, Latino actors, Gay actors
Studio : Paramount Pictures
Genre : Science Fiction
Topics : Adventures , Space and Aliens
Character Strengths : Teamwork
Run time : 120 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : January 19, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star trek movies & more, sci-fi movies, related topics.

Space and Aliens

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Star Trek Beyond review: two minutes of humor, two hours of angst

The latest j.j. abrams-era reboot keeps its crew scrambling and stressed.

By Tasha Robinson
on July 22, 2016 09:15 am

For just a few delirious minutes at the opening of Star Trek Beyond , the third film in the latest Trek reboot cycle, director Justin Lin ( Fast And The Furious 3 through 6) and writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung appear to be making a comedy. It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years since Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , the last Trek movie to let its characters be loopy, relaxed, and even silly for more than the space of a line or a scene. The new Trek movies have allowed humor through the door, but it’s mostly been a shoulder-punching bro humor, focused on James T. Kirk’s belligerence or his bedroom habits. But Beyond ’s opening is a strong reminder that heroes are more fun when they have a chance to breathe outside of crisis, and drop their mean mugs for a while. Things get meta, with Kirk (Chris Pine) complaining after an away mission that he’s torn his shirt again (a running theme on the original 1960s Trek ), wearily contemplating a closet full of identical yellow command jackets, and worrying that his adventures have gotten — wink wink, TV fans — “a little episodic.” An early diplomatic errand even turns into a visual gag reminiscent of Galaxy Quest . It’s a softer, more audience-inclusive kind of humor than Trek ’s allowed before, and for these precious minutes, the film is self-aware and funny, instead of dripping with angst, anger, and panic. That doesn’t last. The previous Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness , ended with the Enterprise and its crew headed out on an unprecedented, much-coveted five-year exploration mission, as Kirk’s latest reward for breaking every Starfleet rule he could think of. Beyond finds the ship three years into that mission, with Kirk bored, disillusioned, and (improbably as hell) planning to resign his beloved command in favor of a desk job. His first officer, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is angsty for different reasons: after the death of alternate-timeline Old Spock (the late Leonard Nimoy, who gets a quiet, touching tribute), New Spock is pondering his mortality and his duty to the Vulcan people. But then a distressed alien (Lydia Wilson) shows up at Starfleet’s biggest, newest, most advanced outpost asking for help. Her story leads Kirk and crew to a planet where among other things, they encounter a life-draining despot named Krall (Idris Elba) and an angry refugee named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella). The former tries to kill them and the latter tries to help them, and from that point on, the film is mostly one action scene after another, with enough constant, immediate threat to keep adrenaline-junkie Kirk keen to stay in the captain’s chair.

Lin's usual directorial dynamism seems like a natural fit for the revved-up new Star Trek films, but given how visually manic Star Trek Into Darkness was, there aren't many ways for him to speed things up here. If anything, he makes more sedate camera choices than J.J. Abrams did in Into Darkness ; Lin tends to stick with a shot instead of lunging for the characters' faces, or twisting off in random directions. That doesn't slow the film down at all, but does rein in Abrams' more hyperbolic tendencies, and it emphasizes the characters over the camera work.

Lin's take on Trek is just close enough to Abrams' to make Star Trek Beyond feel like a natural continuation of the series. Abrams' Trek reboots have had a giddy, manic tone from his first introduction of Kirk as a defiant kid driving his stepdad's classic car off a cliff for no clear reason, to the tune of Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." (That moment gets a major callback in Beyond , in a sequence that's a little bit triumphant payoff, a little bit cheesy fan service, and a big chunk of Mars Attacks rip-off.) They've found excuses to turn nearly every moment into a frantic race against the clock, driving the characters from one hair's-breadth escape to the next. The latest installment is no exception: as soon as the Enterprise crew arrives at their latest destination, they're under the kind of constant heavy threat that blockbusters use to shout down reasonable thought and obvious questions.

Here, those questions loom past the end of the film. Star Trek Beyond front-loads the story with destruction and devastation, then rushes through the backstory so close to the end that there's no time to fill in all the mystifying gaps. Just as it's never clear why Kirk somehow thinks piloting a space-station desk might be more fulfilling and less "episodic" than space exploration, the film skims past Krall's motives, and in both cases, the lack of explanation nullifies the threat. It never seems likely that impatient, reckless Kirk might actually give up the job he loves. And Krall winds up as about as generic a baddie as the Trek movies have provided to date. His manifesto amounts to "Unity is bad, fighting is good, so the Federation should die," which barely counts as a bumper sticker, let alone a meaningful credo. A late-film reveal fleshes him out slightly, but only makes his intentions more petty, irrational, and difficult to buy. And it certainly doesn't help that Beyond follows in the footsteps of X-Men: Apocalypse in hiring a charismatic, flexible actor as the antagonist, then hiding him behind latex, makeup, and monosyllabic dialogue.

(Paramount)

Star Trek: Beyond does have a strength that its two reboot predecessors lacked: it puts the focus squarely on the larger Trek ensemble, rather than solely on Kirk and his relationships. The captain still gets plenty to do — once again, the fate of untold numbers of people comes down to a fistfight on a CGI set — but he isn't the maverick lone hero he tried so hard to be in the first film.

An early calamity separates the Enterprise crew, putting Kirk with Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin, who also gets a quiet acknowledgement in the credits), forcing frenemies Spock and Bones (Karl Urban) into a solo survival scenario, and leaving Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Sulu (John Cho) to face Krall alone. Each of these pair-offs have their own particular problems to solve to move the story forward, and each pairing emphasizes what the characters are made for — Uhura as a fighter and communicator, Chekov as an enthusiastic problem-solver, Sulu as a leader-in-training, and so forth. The Spock / Bones sequences in particular finally lets the iconic relationship between these characters flower again, with all its sneering digs and sullen mutual respect. It also finally gives Urban something to do in this series besides undermining other characters as they struggle to make hard decisions under immense pressure. The pairings bring out new energy in the characters, and give Beyond more of a diverse focus on different personalities and different problems. The downside is that the story feels rushed and fractured, always diving desperately from one scene to the next. But like the Fast And Furious films, Beyond finally feels like it's about family, about a closely connected ensemble of hyper-competents fighting for their lives — and more importantly, for each other.

While all this is going on, Scotty (co-writer Simon Pegg) winds up with Jaylah, a refugee on Krall's planet. She's mighty reminiscent of The Force Awakens ' Rey: a tough survivalist with endless mechanical aptitude, a grudging truce with the other indigenous scroungers, a weapon that's more or less a quarterstaff spangled with tech scraps, and a chip on her shoulder about the fate of her family. (Her striking character design, centered around high-contrast facial paint, also looks more like alien stylings from the Star Wars series than like traditional Trek looks, which are more often built around prosthetics, or recently, CGI.) Jaylah feels a bit like a half-hearted corrective to Trek 's gender-balance problem, especially since she represents so many familiar kick-ass-lady stereotypes, but Boutella plays her with plenty of appealing swagger and intensity, and the film does a nice job of keeping her relevant to the story without trying to turn her into a sex object or a target.

And that story at least feels like it's moving the Trek narrative forward, even when the villainy is so backward. The Abrams reboot era isn't over yet — the next sequel has already been green-lit — and with Beyond , it feels like it's just now loosening up enough to have fun with itself and to fully stretch out and enjoy its characters. At this point, the franchise is ripe for an installment with a little internal logic and a newly created villain as thought-through and resonant as Khan, the one it borrowed from its predecessors for Into Darkness . But until a richer villain and more thought-out story come along, we at least have this chapter, which offers fans of the original Trek world some of the things they've most wanted: space to enjoy all their old heroes, and reasons to respect them again.

How filmmakers manipulate emotions using color

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DVD & Streaming

Star Trek Beyond

Action/Adventure , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

July 22, 2016
Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk; Zachary Quinto as Commander Spock; Karl Urban as Doctor 'Bones' McCoy; Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura; Simon Pegg as Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott; John Cho as Sulu; Anton Yelchin as Chekov; Idris Elba as Krall; Sofia Boutella as Jaylah

Home Release Date

November 1, 2016

Distributor

Paramount Pictures

Movie Review

The crew of the Starship Enterprise is some three years into its five-year mission: “To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

But, honestly, all that’s getting a little old.

It’s not that Captain James T. Kirk doesn’t love and admire his friends and crewmates. And it’s not that finding new civilizations isn’t cool. But he has been wondering what all that deep space wandering has really accomplished. In fact, he’s sorta thinking maybe it’s time to hang up his yellow uniform shirt and make a career change. There’s a plum position at the sleek star base Yorktown that’s looking kind of sweet.

I know, that doesn’t sound like the Captain Kirk we all know and love. But it’s indicative of the sense of malaise that has really started to impact Kirk and his crew.

Turns out Commander Spock has been giving some thought to making a change, too. He recently received word of his demise. Well, it was the demise of his future self, Spock Prime, who had ventured back in time and was working on rebuilding the lost Vulcan home world. Anyway, with the demise of that venerated man, Vulcan needs a new leader to move that vital mission forward.

But before Kirk and Spock can come to a melding of the minds, a female alien arrives at Yorktown in a damaged craft. She reports that after a terrible accident, her entire crew was left stranded on a planet in a distant nebula.

This looks like a job for the Enterprise. Only Kirk and his crew have the expertise, the ship, the equipment to handle such a rescue. So they step up, gear up and head up … into a trap.

The menacing reptilian warlord Krall has been slithering around, watching the Federation’s movements in the area. He’s been observing Kirk and his crew. There’s a certain artifact that Kirk has acquired in his travels. It’s a weapon containing power so great that the slightly bored Starfleet captain doesn’t even know what he’s got.

But Krall knows. He knows how these humans work. He knows their weaknesses, their frailties. And he knows that destroying this captain named Kirk—shredding his precious starship into so many pieces of scrap metal and enslaving his precious crew—is the key to all his malevolent plans.

Positive Elements

Kirk may be a hard-driving, leap-into-action kind of guy, but he also readily thinks of others first. For example: Kirk has an easy escape if he simply rides away from an endangered alien woman named Jaylah; but instead he wades headfirst in to help her. He also jumps into a potentially deadly encounter in the hope of saving a city full of people.

In the course of the film, others in his crew (and even the far- less-inclined Jaylah) follow suit, risking everything to protect or aid someone else. The baddie Krall actually believes this compassion and unity-focused tenacity is his foes’ greatest weakness, and he says so repeatedly. (He espouses suffering and struggle as the only true sources of strength.) But the Enterprise crew’s sense of hard-fighting comradery eventually proves the warlord’s undoing.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual & romantic content.

Kirk’s shown sans shirt. Two crewmembers kiss, and another walks shirtless out of female crewmember’s room. Mr. Sulu has a picture of a young girl on his console. Later in a crowded space station, we see him meet another man who’s walking with that girl. (The unstated implication is that the two men and the girl are a family, something that would be far from clear apart from recent high-profile publicity in this world that’s trumpeted Sulu’s homosexual identity.)

Violent Content

The violence can be intense, especially during two major attack scenes. Krall controls thousands of ships that rip the Enterprise into pieces. Vicious explosions slam people into walls and corridors inside the ship. The bodies of the dead lie scattered around, and some people are sucked out into the vacuum of space. Similar destruction takes place when Krall’s bee swarm of ships crashes and smashes into the giant snow globe-like exterior of the Yorktown station.

We also witness up-close-and-personal battles. Hand-to-hand melees are filled with blows, punches and flying jump kicks. Handheld phaser blasts are frequent. In some cases, such as in the brutally pounding fights between Krall and Kirk, the participants are left bloodied. A thumping fight between petite Jaylah and one of Krall’s chief thugs (whom she says elsewhere killed her parents) is particularly wince-worthy.

After a rescue pod crashes, Spock emerges with a huge piece of metal sticking out of his side. Bones cauterizes the wound (off camera) with superheated metal. We see Spock’s bloodied clothes ( green stains, of course) and pained movements.

Krall can suck the life force out of people. We see the shriveled corpses of several such victims, and we watch as the villain tortures two others with that power. Krall’s also superhumanly strong, sometimes picking people up by the neck.

Elsewhere, a huge ship crashes down on a woman, crushing her. And two people are consumed by the insect-like devouring power of a deadly weapon.

Crude or Profane Language

Dr. McCoy regularly exclaims “My god, man!” and “Good lord!” in his demonstrative speaking style. In addition, the movie’s dialogue contains a few uses of the s-word and a handful of uses each of “a–,” “h—,” “d–n” and “b–tard.”

Drug & Alcohol Content

Kirk and Bones have a few glasses of strong drink. The crew toasts the captain’s birthday with alcohol. In fact, Jaylah sits in front of about 10 empty glasses at that party, an attempt, she says, to “take her edge off.” (She doesn’t appear inebriated, however.)

Other Noteworthy Elements

Scotty’s alien sidekick has a cold and spews mucus that has the corroding power of acid.

The Star Trek franchise has warped on from its original “five-year mission” to this, its 50th anniversary. Amazingly, the series is still cranking out summer blockbusters. But, then again, maybe that isn’t so amazing. After all, nostalgic throwbacks such as Ghostbusters and Pokémon are still on people’s lips around the water cooler these days, too.

Speaking of which, there has also been quite a bit of lip-flapping about this film going where no Star Trek property has gone before. So let me start there. You may have heard that one iconic crew member is revealed to be gay in the course of this movie. That decision was reportedly a tip of the hat to actor George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu in the original series and who has subsequently come out himself. The much ballyhooed reveal is present for those paying attention, but it’s so subtle you might have missed it were it not for all the press surrounding that story.

The more obvious transformation is the fact that director Justin Lin, of Fast & Furious film fame, has now taken the directing helm here. That makes this newest Trek a snappy, dilithium crystal-fueled adventure that surges forward with enough intensity and explosiveness that you barely even notice the sci-fi plot holes that might normally stand out like the green skin tone of an Orion slave girl.

Stylistic tweaks and adjustments aside, though, this latest theater treat for Trekkies definitely harkens back to the ’60s sci-fi television roots from which it springs. There are many “live long and prosper” nods to that first crew. And this pic’s plotline brims with optimism and feels as if it could have been beamed right out of the original series (albeit, with a more stellar production budget and the inclusion of s-words).

As was the case with those episodes from yesteryear, Star Trek Beyond offers a deep space exploration of heroics and optimism. It presents an imagined future where men and women work best when they rally together and fight against impossible odds as one. “You cannae break a stick in a bundle,” Scotty declares in his iconic Scottish brogue.

And while the brave Captain Kirk and his crew are ready to put their lives on the line for each other and for the good of all, they also recognize that taking positive steps to avoid those life-threatening situations in the first pace is always the best course. “We change,” Kirk opines. “We have to or we spend the rest of our lives fighting the same battles.”

So if you want to look, uh, beyond the photon torpedo-filled interspecies conflicts of the latest Star Trek for deeper statements about war, politics and, perhaps, racism in our roiling real world, you can. If not, well, this is a fan-boy film with a whole lot of shoot-’em-with-a-phaser-and-punch-’em-in-the-mouth action.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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'Star Trek Beyond' Spoiler Review: This Is The Most Positive Blockbuster Of 2016

In a summer seemingly defined by how disappointing so many movies have been, Star Trek Beyond is an oasis. It's crowd-pleaser that has something on its mind, a sequel that's not painfully beholden to massive franchise plans, and a story about the power of positivity overcoming darkness. In short, it's a unique release for 2016...and the right antidote for 2016.

And since it's Monday and you've had a chance to see it, let's take a deeper dive into what makes this movie tick.

What is Star Trek, Anyway?

When Star Trek Beyond first began screening, an old argument was dragged into the public yet again: what is Star Trek ? And who is it for? And does this, the latest iteration of a 50-year old franchise, actually count as Star Trek or is it something the more serious fans, the aficionados who have studied Enterprise blueprints, should write off as not mattering in the grand scheme of things?

The truth is that this discussion is inherently silly. Star Trek isn't so easily identifiable as a single thing. It's too big for that. Even creator Gene Roddenberry couldn't make up his mind and his original "wagon train to the stars" pitch evolved over the years, transforming from heady, spacey, pulpy science fiction into something of a social document that used sci-fi as a backdrop for a utopian portrait. The original series is a different beast than Star Trek: The Next Generation . Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a different beast than most of the movies. The Kelvin Timeline, the rebooted series created by J.J. Abrams, is its own animal.

And it is an animal that suits new director Justin Lin 's sensibilities just fine. Although he grew up a Star Trek fan, Lin's interests are more varied. In Star Trek Beyond , you can see the other facets of his personality shining through. He likes fast vehicles and intense action. He has a soft spot for goofy humor. The blockbuster-friendly pacing that he perfected while transforming the Fast and Furious series from a terrible movie franchise into a hugely entertaining one is on display here. Lin may like Star Trek , but he's a jock at heart, the kind of kid who left the house to play basketball when other Trek fans cracked open those technical manuals. Star Trek Beyond is the obvious work of a casual fan – he's aware of the iconography, but nothing is sacred. Him blowing up the Enterprise in act one feels like statement.

Star Trek Beyond is Star Trek because it doesn't feel quite like what came before. That's the whole point of Star Trek . There are shades of the original series in how Kirk and the crew solve a trick problem on the Planet of the Week. There are shades of The Next Generation in how it holds humanity's unlimited potential up on a pedestal. There are even shades of Deep Space Nine , a show that continuously questioned the purpose of the Federation and Starfleet and explored what it means to function in a society where perfection is the norm. But most of all, Star Trek Beyond is a spirited adventure, an optimistic romp, a tale of colleagues, a makeshift family, coming together and fighting for what they believe in. Lin is a jock. His Captain Kirk, who even gets to drive a motorcycle like a more traditional action hero, is also a total jock. However, they're the kind of jocks who fraternize with the nerds and rely on them and treat them with the utmost respect. Star Trek Beyond isn't Trek at its smartest, but it's the first Trek movie in a long time that stands in awe of what a mixed team of experts from all different backgrounds can accomplish.

Splitting Up

Whenever I start watching a new television show, I give it a simple test. Could you take any two characters and separate them from the rest of the ensemble and enjoy their interactions? For the best shows, the answer is generally yes. A strong cast isn't made up of individuals – it's a team. Each actor, each character, serves a unique function. Watching those functions mix and match and bounce off one another must be a pleasure.

The crew of the Enterprise has been the chief draw of Star Trek since 1966. Watching this assortment of personalities gel on the bridge or on an away mission has always been a delight. At its best, Trek has always been an ode to teamwork. Remove one member of the bridge crew and watch things start to crumble. Everyone has one another's back. J.J. Abrams recognized this. Even through 2009's Star Trek struggles through its myriad of story speed bumps, Abrams inspires great joy by showcasing people doing their jobs well. Orders are issued and actions are performed and everyone looks like they know exactly what they're doing. There is a great deal of pleasure to be had in watching a well-oiled machine.

Star Trek Beyond shakes up the formula by removing the bridge, and the entire Enterprise, from the picture. Simon Pegg and Doug Jung 's screenplay scatters the Enterprise crew across an uncharted planet, creating a few odd couples. Kirk and Chekov set out to locate the rest of the crew. Dr. McCoy struggles to save an injured Spock. Uhura and Sulu do some detective work from prison. Scotty meets a new ally in Jaylah, a stone-faced survivor and warrior. While all of these people are a blast in the same room, the dynamics that are created when they are paired off is immensely satisfying. Without backup, they must rely on one another and the film finds joy in how everyone steps up to fill the void of their missing crew mates. The temptation to create artificial drama in each pairing much have lurked over Pegg and Jung at all times, but they craft drama from characters coming together in the face of a desperate situation. It's a breath of fresh air after the overbearing negativity of Star Trek Into Darkness . People, Star Trek Beyond argues, can and will rise to the occasion.

While each pairing is fun, it's the McCoy and Spock scenes that rise to the top. There has always been a natural friction between these two – one lets his emotions lead the way while the other is, by the nature of his species and upbringing, a being of pure logic. The dynamic here isn't about these two coming to an understanding or learning that they're friends. They are already friends. They've reached an understanding ages ago. These two push each other's buttons in ways that only people who have been working together for three years can get away with. Their loyalty to one another is paramount and their affection obvious. They bicker and debate and insult like only true friends can. Star Trek Beyond 's action scenes are already fading from my mind, but Spock and McCoy's conversations and gripings continue to linger. Cooperation is a thrilling thing, especially when its two parties with such different world views.

The New Additions

By now, the Enterprise crew feel like old friends and that's a combination of 50 years worth of reverence for these characters and the fact that the new cast is nothing short of a miracle. Recasting characters this iconic was a fool's errand and they somehow pulled it off. These men and women are as fun to watch now as they ever have been. Star Trek Into Darkness proved that they're still an effective bunch even when they're saddled with a total dog of a movie.

Star Trek Beyond introduces two new characters into the mix and the results are uneven. Without existing affection for these people, it's harder to forgive their flaws, especially when certain aspects of their storylines simply don't make much sense.

Let's start with Krall, the new villain played by Idris Elba . Conceptually, he's fantastic. As we learn late in the movie, this mysterious alien is actually Captain Balthazar Edison, a soldier whose career become obsolete when Starfleet was formed and a more traditional military was put out to pasture. Eventually, Captain Edison finds himself stranded on a planet with a very convenient super-weapon, a very convenient army of drones, and some very convenient technology that allows him to absorb the life-force of other beings to stay alive. For some reason, that life-giving tech seems to transform him into a monster...until he starts using it more and begins to resemble his old human self again. However, it's not clear exactly what he wants and it's not clear who makes up his army of henchmen. His motivations are intentionally vague at first and remain opaque even as he's battling Kirk in hand-to-hand combat to the death.

But think about Krall/Edison on paper! In a movie about how much we can achieve by pushing into the future, here's a literal relic from the past who is so hateful of change that he wants to kill millions of people. Here's a troubled soldier, a guy who only knows war, unable to comprehend a galaxy where peace is suggested before anyone even thinks of pulling a trigger. He's a powerful physical threat (he destroys the Enterprise for crying out loud), but he's also a symbolic threat. He's an enemy of the future. He's an enemy of progress. It's a genuine shame that this collection of fascinating ideas never quite gel on screen and that the movie never gives Elba a truly defining moment.

More successful is Jaylah, the alien refugee and scavenger played by Sofia Boutella . In addition to looking amazing (her make-up is a refreshing riff on Trek's "every alien has a weird forehead" tradition), she passes the most important test: she can hold her own amongst the Enterprise ensemble. She's tough and she's funny and she's hugely entertaining no matter who she's paired off with. Her final scene, where she is offered a chance to attend Starfleet Academy, is a big 'ol tease. Yes, of course I'd like to see her in a yellow or red uniform and working alongside everyone else.

Jaylah is so much fun and Boutella such an arresting screen presence that it's easy to overlook just how half-baked her storyline can be. Introduced as a tough-as-nails warrior of few words, the film teases out her backstory, puts her on a mission of personal redemption and then...drops it completely, canceling her arc in mid-stride to give Kirk an action beat. The intention is clear: Jaylah lost her family, but she has found a new one with the Enterprise crew. In execution, it's inelegant at best.

Action vs. Camaraderie

In his four Fast and Furious movies, Justin Lin proved himself adept at two things: shooting insane, creative action and shooting charismatic people you really like having conversations that you want to go on forever. One of those aspects made it into Star Trek Beyond .

What the hell happened to Star Trek Beyond 's action? Lin shoots every fistfight and every phaser battle in cluttered, shaky close-ups cut together without rhyme or reason or attention to geography. I think there's a scene where the saucer of the ruined Enterprise tips over and crushes a villain, but it's so poorly staged that I just had to assume that was what happened. This is especially baffling because it's not like Lin is an action amateur and it's not like the rest of the film is so incompetently made. When the Enterprise enters a nebula, he stages the scene with the right notes of dread and wonder. When his characters first visit the Yorktown starbase, the sense of scale is palpable. Lin can sell spectacle and he sells it repeatedly throughout Star Trek Beyond , but this is a movie where the scenes involving everyone standing around and making plans for a prison break are far more exciting than the actual prison break.

But let's dwell on the optimistic angle here: this is a movie where characters standing around making plans for a prison break are exciting! Every dialogue-heavy scene is a treat, especially since the actors know their characters well by now and Pegg and Jung know Star Trek well enough to put the right words in their mouths. Lin has the perfect touch for these kinds of scenes. There's a quiet skill in directing conversations where every participant gets to shine and everyone from Scotty to Sulu gets their fair share of killer lines and beats. Lin treasures his ensemble and gives them the room they need and it pays off in a big way.

Hope, Optimism, and a Future Worth Fighting For

Every version of Star Trek has had its divergences from what has been established before, but there's one concept that forms the umbrella that hangs over the entire franchise: the future is a better, brighter place and mankind will work together to create a new standard. This was peppered throughout the thrilling roller coaster that is 2009's Star Trek , but it was almost entirely absent from Star Trek Into Darkness , which painted Trek's future as an illusion, a front illegal wars and false flag operations and everything else in your conspiracy theory handbook. Star Trek has featured bad apples before ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country being the most obvious example), but the pervasive darkness and hopelessness of Into Darkness remains depressing. Star Trek has been critical of its own universe before, but that was the first time it has been portrayed as so profoundly broken.

Coming after Into Darkness , and arriving in a year where every real world headline brings with it another wave of despair, Star Trek Beyond is a rallying cry for rising above the muck. I've already discussed how the film mines so much drama and comedy from a cast of characters getting along and helping each other out to tight spots, but this general optimism, this can-do attitude, pervades every frame of the movie. It's in Kirk's final fight with Krall, where he pauses the punching to explain to the mass-murderer that he can find peace in this progressive future. It's in the care the Enterprise's command team showcases for the fellow members of their crew, risking life and limb to ensure their safety and rescue them when they're captured. It's in the scenes where characters come together and become smarter, braver and generally more efficient because they are actually listening to one another and acting as a unit.

Star Trek Beyond is obsessed with the value of change. It's the most positive, upbeat blockbuster in years, a rallying cry for people to come together and rise up. The action is a choppy mess and the two of the new characters are uneven, but this is what matters. This is what Star Trek is all about: social consciousness occasionally interrupted by someone punching an alien in the jaw.

A Special Note On Sabotage

There's one scene in Star Trek Beyond that sounds so disastrous and ends up working so well that it deserves special consideration. Late in the movie, our cast of heroes must devise a way to defeat the swarm of drones that made quick work of the Enterprise before Yorktown can be destroyed. With only the antique USS Franklin at their disposal, options are limited...until the crew brainstorms an idea so crazy that it just may work. If they used radio signals to override the drones, they could create mass chaos amongst the swarm and destroy Krall's entire fleet. All they need is to broadcast something very loud in the exact right way.

And that's when a throwaway gag earlier in the film comes into play. The Franklin's music selection becomes the only weapon that can save the day, with "Sabotage" being aimed directly at the enemy. It works and a Star Trek movie manages to get away with a scene where the Enterprise destroys an intergalactic threat using the power of the Beastie Boys.

Let's break down why this works. First, it was the climax to an amusing joke from earlier in the movie and the sudden realization that Jaylah listening to "Fight the Power" was more than a simple laugh moment is deeply satisfying. Second, it showcases Kirk and his crew thinking outside of the box, using their minds and ingenuity to win an un-winnable fight. Third, it allows for the moment where McCoy and Spock hear the song of choice and refer to it as "classical music," which manages to justify the use of a song that should otherwise have no place in a Star Trek movie (and I say that knowing good and well that it was previously used in the 2009 movie, as well as this movie's teaser trailer).

It's a scene that will many fans something to grumble about, but it also represents the unique touch Justin Lin brings to this movie. It's bombastic and silly, but it's in service of characters being wily and intelligent. It's the crowd-pleasing, literally-explosive result of some very smart men and women saving the day because they're a fully-functioning unit powered by positivity. It's so weird. It's a little dumb. But it's totally Star Trek .

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Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Greg Eichelberger
Movie Reviews
7 responses
--> July 25, 2016

The third part of the “Star Trek” series reboot, Star Trek Beyond , does not reach the heights of other film franchises such as “Harry Potter,” “The Dark Knight” or “The Hunger Games,” but it is certainly better than the second installment, “ Star Trek Into Darkness ,” so thank goodness for small victories . . .

Directed by Justin Lin (of “Fast and Furious” infamy) from a script by Simon Pegg (“ The World’s End ”) and Doug Jung (“Dark Blue” TV series) and starring the same actors in roles we’ve grown to love (or at least tolerate) — Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Pegg, Karl Urban, the late Anton Yelchin and Zoe Saldana, among others — the intrepid crew of the United Federation starship USS Enterprise now has their latest mission to go where no movie series has gone before.

And while part two went WAY beyond (thanks to director J.J. Abrams), incorporating the whole “Wrath of Khan” thing and then making the intellectual Spock (Quinto, “ Hitman: Agent 47 ”) an awkward action hero, this effort let’s the mission get back to its more familiar roots; a restless Captain Kirk (Pine, “ Into the Woods ”) going the extra mile to save another civilization while endangering his crew.

You know, typical “Star Trek” stuff for a cultural icon celebrating its 50th anniversary, beginning with the original series (1966-69) and at least a dozen feature films, so it’s not like we haven’t seen just about everything it has to offer (with the possible exception of Lin’s OVERuse of the cinéma vérité, handheld, shaky camera effects that make a few sequences almost unwatchable . . .).

In Star Trek Beyond , we are introduced to a new orbiting space station, although I should write, “space city.” It is a huge orbiting community with rivers and monorails and high-rise buildings and has enough room for a fleet of starships. Here, the Enterprise receives a distress call from a forbidden planet in the Crab Nebula region and soon beams aboard the ship’s only survivor, Kalara (Lydia Wilson, “Love Is Thicker Than Water”), who informs her rescuers that she was part of a scientific expedition gone wrong. Kirk is suspicious, but nevertheless plunges headfirst to the location to save the rest of the stranded scientists.

Of course, the real reason was to lure the Enterprise into the hands of the violent warlord Krall (Idris Elba, “ Beast of No Nation ”), a lizard-like alien who proceeds to destroy the ship (at least the third movie in which THIS has happened) and capture the entire crew. At first, we are mystified by Krall’s motivation, but it becomes clear — somewhat — later on.

Meanwhile, an army of graphic artists is putting in overtime showcasing the destruction of the great vessel as it is systematically dismembered by a gaggle of bumble bee-like ships dispatched by the enemy from the surface of the planet. Once down, various crew members team up and have their own separate adventures: Dr. McCoy (Urban, “ Dredd ”) has to save Spock from a serious injury (they reach a new understanding after years of conflict), Kirk and Chekov try to locate the captured crew (coming off of Yelchin’s tragic death this summer, these scenes are especially poignant), and Scotty (Pegg) joins a resourceful female alien, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, “ Kingsman: The Secret Service ,”), in an attempt to refurbish an old starship to facilitate that rescue.

The art and production departments are also putting in extra hours and it shows, from the planet’s rocky surface to the dark caves to the interior of the abandoned USS Franklin, which has, of course, become cloaked so all of the bad guys in the area never see it.

There is also other goofy scientific trickery afoot as a hologramed Kirk rides a motorcycle in 50 different directions to confuse everyone — even the audience — while the crew makes a break for it. And as an added storyline, Kirk is up for a vice-admiral position and wants Spock to take over command of the Enterprise if he gets it; but the Vulcan hero has other plans. Oh, and since this is 2016, there’s a gay character revealed (I won’t mention any names, but — spoiler alert — just think George Takei).

In the end, after much derring-do and other plot conveniences, Krall and his thousand ship armada invade, but run into Spock’s interminable logic and knowledge of beehives. With top-flight production values and a so-so story, Star Trek Beyond is a decent installment of the iconic series. If it continues, however, all of hope for better things to come.

Tagged: aliens , sequel , space , television show adaptation

I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.

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'Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond (2016)' have 7 comments

July 25, 2016 @ 3:52 pm ossicles

FYI, it helps to not spoil the movie for those that haven’t seen it.

July 25, 2016 @ 4:16 pm AkronBuilt

Justin Lin, the man credited with the F&F shitshow, is credited with righting the Enterprise? I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.

July 25, 2016 @ 5:48 pm upsilon overground

It’s the best of the resent Star Trek reboots. Krall is a complex villain with a believable motivation that isn’t world domination related, the starship crew are more sensible and there is more adventure than action. I’ve always felt that Star Trek is not an action movie and the crew aren’t action heroes.

July 25, 2016 @ 6:08 pm aughast

Gotta have that gay character to push the gay agenda forward,,,

July 25, 2016 @ 9:30 pm T-Bird

Damn Enterprise gets destroyed again. Kirk causes more damage to the Federation than the Klingons an Romulans combined.

July 25, 2016 @ 11:36 pm hoville

. . . . RIP Anton Yelchin . . . .

July 26, 2016 @ 3:22 pm happy frog

Star Wars trumps StarTrek evry day

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Star Trek Beyond Review

22 Jul 2016

120 minutes

Star Trek Beyond

Roses rarely lose their bloom as quickly as Star Trek Into Darkness . Well received upon its initial release, JJ Abrams ’ sequel has since undergone a recalibration and a re-evaluation. It was famously voted worst Trek movie ever by one group of Trekkers, and has been criticised for being too dark, for its karaoke-style riffing on previous Trek films such as The Wrath Of Khan , and for simply not feeling like a Star Trek movie.

Star Trek Beyond feels like a reaction to that reaction. Here is a movie where the emphasis is on good, old-fashioned fun, and that feels, in a good way, almost like an extended episode of the Trek TV show, right down to stranding the crew of the Enterprise on an alien world where the sets sometimes feel fashioned out of polystyrene. It’s a movie that, in almost every word of Simon Pegg and Doug Jung ’s script, responds to the fans’ criticisms and says, “We listened.”

It’s a movie that, in almost every word of the script, responds to the fans’ criticisms and says, “We listened.”

That kind of fan service can, of course, be dangerous, and Beyond is not without its flaws. But the key tweak here is a welcome one; namely, a new focus on Chris Pine ’s Kirk, Zachary Quinto ’s Spock, and Karl Urban ’s Bones. That trio were the beating heart of the original iteration of Star Trek , but in terms of scenes together, they’ve been largely lacking in this new, younger, sexier guise. Indeed, Urban has talked about his reluctance to return for this instalment, and given how McCoy was reduced to virtual cameo status in Into Darkness , you couldn’t have blamed him if he had walked. But here, he’s given so much more to do, as Bones and an injured Spock become a virtual double act, a space-age Abbott and Costello, bantering and bickering with each other as they face what seems to be near-certain death. Quinto is also excellent in these scenes, which allow him to further showcase Spock’s humanity without compromising the character’s emotional core.

Pine is the stand-out here, though, as Kirk wrestles throughout with the ghost of his father, and a monumental career decision. Once again, the actor strikes the perfect blend of swaggering action hero, thoughtfulness and occasional Shatnerism. There’s a moment during a third-act action scene that should, by any rights, be utterly ridiculous (it may yet prove divisive, but we loved it; you’ll know it when you see it), yet Pine sells it with nothing more than a gleam in his eye and a slight smirk.

In an ensemble movie, heavy emphasis on some characters may mean others are somewhat underserved, and that does happen here. Even though the movie’s structure allows new director Justin Lin to split the Enterprise’s crew into different mini-factions and place the emphasis on resourcefulness and teamwork as they try to figure out a way off the rock they’re stranded upon, there’s still not a huge amount for Zoe Saldana ’s Uhura, John Cho ’s Sulu (who is revealed to be gay in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way) and the late Anton Yelchin ’s Chekov to do. Pegg’s Scotty is a little more involved here, but it’s not like Pegg has suddenly written himself a hero’s role. Abrams may have gone from Trek , but his biggest legacy was in casting these roles perfectly, and there’s a joy to be gleaned from watching them interact.

If there’s one area in which the film suffers as a result of push-back against the previous movie, it’s in the choice of bad guy. For all his faults, Benedict Cumberbatch ’s Khan was a glorious highlight of Into Darkness , always needling away at its heroes, always front and centre, so much so that at times it seemed that Kirk and co were occasionally cameoing in their own movie.

Throughout it all, there’s a lovely reverence for the legacy of *Trek*.

Krall, again, seems like a direct response to that. After an eyecatching entrance worthy of a master villain, he retreats to the edges of the movie, his motivations initially unclear, his grand plan somewhat shonky in design. He is a mystery rather than a fully fledged character, and when we do catch up with him, he monologues in the standard Evilspeak of a hundred nondescript nemeses. You sense that he’s a character whose anti-Federation viewpoint is designed to spark debate — “Is Starfleet really a good thing?” But the answer is so obviously, overwhelmingly, “Yes,” that the debate quickly dies. Sadly, there’s precious little in Krall’s words or deeds to suggest why an actor as talented as Idris Elba would subject himself to hours of prosthetics. He’s just a reheated version of Eric Bana ’s similarly unmemorable Nero from the 2009 reboot.

Those concerned by the hiring of Lin to replace Abrams need not be. Yes, he is the man who revitalised the Fast And Furious franchise by taking it in a gloriously OTT, ridiculously stupid direction, but here he dials down that freneticism for something more considered. It’s relatively low on the explosions front, and there are whole scenes here where the camera doesn’t move. But when the action starts, he’s more than capable of handling it, most notably in the bravura extended sequence when the Enterprise is ripped to shreds by Krall’s seemingly unstoppable swarm of bee-like ships. And throughout it all, there’s a lovely reverence for the legacy of Trek . Chances are this rose won’t be losing its bloom anytime soon.

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Den of Geek

Star Trek Beyond Review

Justin Lin takes over as director for the third entry in the Kelvin timeline, Star Trek Beyond, boldly going in a positive direction.

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Aside from everything else, Star Trek Beyond immediately provokes a massive sigh of relief. Following the cynical, ludicrous fan service and paranoid truther politics of the abysmal Star Trek Into Darkness , the franchise has gone through an overhaul and come out the better for it. With J.J. Abrams staying as producer but installing Justin Lin ( Fast & Furious ) as the new director, and cast member Simon Pegg and co-writer Doug Jung taking over screenwriting duties from the odious Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Trek has pivoted back to a simpler, more traditional approach. Star Trek Beyond evokes the spirit of the original series better than the previous two films in the so-called Kelvin timeline, getting past the flaws it does have with humor, great character moments, and some nicely placed nostalgia that doesn’t hit you over the head.

As the film opens, the Enterprise is 966 (Trekkers will grasp the meaning of that number) days into this crew’s five-year mission of exploration — yes, the damn ship finally got away from Earth for this entry — and we catch up with Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) just as he’s getting out of a scrape involving relations with a new alien race. From that amusing opening we get a somewhat more sober look at the state of the Enterprise crew, including its captain, after nearly three years in space: like life anywhere, it’s a mix of the marvelous and the mundane, the lonely and the loving, with a sly remark from Kirk about the “episodic” nature of their everyday existence. The original series touched on this in small ways — what it would be like to live with hundreds of others in space for years at a time — but never as succinctly and ambivalently as this.

After docking at the Yorktown , a combination space station/interplanetary hub that arches and twists around itself on a giant gravity wheel like something out of Escher — and where both Kirk and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are making some decisions about their respective futures — a ship appears out of a nearby nebula calling for a rescue mission. The Enterprise launches into action, probing the nebula and coming upon a hidden planet, where the crew and ship fall into a trap sprung by the baleful, malevolent Krall (Idris Elba), an almost classic Trek villain who gradually reveals layers of both his scheme and himself as our heroes struggle to survive and fight back.

A distress signal, a mysterious nebula, ancient alien technology and a long-missing pre-Federation starship — these are the elements that come into play in this story and if they sound like they’re right out of an original series episode, that’s probably no coincidence. Pegg and Jung have crafted what is essentially a feature-length segment of Star Trek : it’s spruced up with top-notch visual effects, given a modern spin with some hyper-adrenalized action sequences, but still centered on the crew that we love and their struggle with the strange circumstances they find themselves in. If I had to rate Star Trek Beyond in terms of the level of quality of each year of the original series, I would put it just a notch or two below the finer episodes of the first two seasons — only because it’s missing the moral dilemma that those stories often presented.

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Pegg and Jung — and Lin, who proves here that he can handle small character moments as well as he handles tons of crashing vehicles — have a genuine fondness for these iconic characters that seemed absent from Star Trek Into Darkness . They also understand what causes them to tick in a way that makes sense when they are separated and broken down into smaller groups. The best moments come from Spock and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), who spend most of the movie together and cut off from everyone else. The two officers have always represented two sides of Kirk’s personality — logic and cool rationalism vs. big emotion and empathy — and their differences are starkly defined here, albeit with some welcome humor (Urban is once again eerily good at invoking the spirit of the late, great DeForest Kelley).

But everyone else also gets their turn. Scotty (Pegg) provides some different comic relief as the engineer finds himself thrown together with an alien named Jaylah (well-played by Sofia Boutella from Kingsman: The Secret Service ), who reveals herself to be an impressive ally. Meanwhile, Kirk and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) are also paired, and there’s a gentle sense of Chekov’s admiration for his commander, who must live up to the responsibility of being a leader to the young ensign. This ties into an earlier scene — a discussion over drinks between Kirk and McCoy that’s a nicer hat-tip to The Wrath of Khan than the whole last movie — where Kirk wonders whether he can ever live up to his father’s legacy as a Starfleet officer. That arc does not get as fully developed as it could have, but the resonance remains. Sadly, it’s bittersweet to watch Yelchin and be reminded of the gifted actor we lost just last month (the film is dedicated to him and Leonard Nimoy, whose own 2015 passing is woven into the film in two brief yet poignant scenes).

As for our villain, the less said the better, but Elba brings out a mix of rage and melancholy — even under a ton of prosthetics — that makes Krall easily the most effective of the antagonists in the Kelvin timeline films, and a damn sight better than some bad guys in earlier Trek pictures too. While a few of his machinations are muddied by the fast pace of the movie — we suspect a scene or two clarifying a couple of points were left in the editing bay — he’s got a purpose and back story that are well fleshed-out and even reminded this fan in a very subtle way of a thematic element from one of the best films of the franchise (I won’t say which).

With the character work on solid footing, it’s odd to say that Lin actually misses the mark with some of the big action set pieces as the film unspools. The first attack by Krall’s forces — a “swarm” of literally hundreds of tiny drone ships — against the Enterprise is brilliantly handled and drives home the agonizing destruction that’s wrought upon the beloved ship. But Lin’s tendency to juggle the camera ultimately works against later scenes, including one set inside the darkened hull of the Enterprise that’s almost impossible to follow. He does redeem himself in the climax, however, staging a hand-to-hand battle in a gravity-free environment that is dizzying and thrilling.

There are other things missing from Star Trek Beyond : that sense of wonder and sometimes awe the old show inspired, along with the moral or ethical dimension to the conflict that we mentioned earlier. Kirk’s brooding over his father seems like something he should have moved beyond (ha ha) by now. Although I’ve despised the half-hearted Spock/Uhura romance from the start, Quinto and Zoe Saldana play it more subtly here, unlike the bickering teens they were reduced to in the last film. And no, the modern, frenetic action scenes still don’t sit quite right in the world of Trek .

The truth is, I may never see what I consider to be the perfect modern Star Trek film. I’m not even sure I’d recognize it, although I know the things I’d like to see in it. But I am sure that every longtime Trekker can picture his or her own perfect Trek movie as well, and I’m equally sure they’re all different. That wide range of possibilities is what has kept Star Trek alive and interesting for nearly five decades, and it’s the acknowledgement of that — plus the original show’s undying optimism — that makes Star Trek Beyond such a nice surprise and affectionate tribute as the 50th anniversary of the original series’ premiere looms on Sept. 8. Star Trek Beyond may not be the perfect Star Trek film, but it is unashamedly, entertainingly, and enthusiastically a true one — and that’s more than enough for this Starfleet lifer.

Star Trek Beyond is out in theaters this Friday (July 22).

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Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

Star Trek Beyond (United States, 2016)

Note: This review contains minor spoilers, although nothing that can’t be gleaned from watching the trailers.

Star Trek Beyond is a Star Trek movie, although not an especially good one. Although that description might sound self-evident, there was concern within the Star Trek fan base that the selection of Justin “ Fast and Furious ” Lin might move Beyond too far from its roots. Without a doubt, Lin has changed things - the movie’s look is radically different, with an abundant use of shaky-cam shots and dizzying quick edits. The action sequences are frenetic, kinetic, and at times incoherent. This isn’t unexpected; it’s Lin’s trademark. But the plot, credited to Simon Pegg & Doug Jung, is pure Trek . Unfortunately, it’s also instantly forgettable.

Lin’s mandate, one assumes, was to continue J.J. Abrams’ mission to make Star Trek mainstream. Although Abrams’ Trek may have been influenced by Star Wars , Lin draws more from Guardians of the Galaxy . Pegg and Jung’s screenplay, which amps up the humor considerably from the tonally glum Star Trek Into Darkness , is complicit in this. No previous Star Trek movie has boasted visual effects this special - the craft evident in creating the Yorktown Starbase takes the movie where no Trek movie has gone before. The devastating attack on the Enterprise is impressive, although the ship took almost as bad a bad pummeling in Star Trek Into Darkness . Its final fate echoes The Search for Spock and Generations , although without much of an emotional impact. This Enterprise has always felt more like a prop than a character. It hasn’t been around long enough to win our affection.

Members of the “new” crew, who have now been involved in the series for three movies over seven years, are still growing into their roles. The camaraderie in the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio is more natural in Beyond than in either Star Trek or Into Darkness and, for the first time, Pegg doesn’t seem horribly miscast as Scotty. Saldana’s Uhura remains a beacon of class and strength but I’m not sold on either Cho or Yelchin. Long-time Trek fans can be excused if they still see these second-generation replacements as imposters.

Then again, the cinematic landscape has changed. Original fans are grandparents, many in their late 60s and 70s (not in their 30s as when The Motion Picture opened). Except in isolated pockets, the passion isn’t there anymore. That, more than anything, is the reason why today’s Star Trek has become plot-light and spectacle-heavy. Star Trek Beyond can stand toe-to-toe with any of 2016’s big-budget blockbusters. When it comes to visual razzle-dazzle and directorial chicanery, it has nothing to be ashamed of. But, as is often the case, those things mask deficiencies in the story. Forgive me for wondering exactly where “beyond” is taking us and whether, ultimately, the trek will be worth it.

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COMMENTS

Star Trek Beyond movie review (2016)
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Note: This review contains minor spoilers, although nothing that can't be gleaned from watching the trailers. Star Trek Beyond is a Star Trek movie, although not an especially good one.Although that description might sound self-evident, there was concern within the Star Trek fan base that the selection of Justin "Fast and Furious" Lin might move Beyond too far from its roots.

Star Trek Beyond

Matt Zoller Seitz

Writer (television series "Star Trek")

Writer (uncredited)

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