Star Trek Beyond

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/film13.php

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

I find the idea that Pegg has a good relationship with the fandom just funny. He literally said 'Fuck you!' to the fans who hated Into Darkness. Didn't Pegg also say something about Star Trek had to become less like Star Trek in order to survive? Yeah, that probably didn't do him any favors either. Chuck did get it right that the trailer of Kirk riding a motorcycle while the Beastie Boys play was what killed this movie's chance of success, as many fans took one look at that and said 'Wow, they're not even pretending anymore, are they?', which is why the movie failed, in my opinion. It probably wouldn't have been the hit Paramount wanted, but it wouldn't have flopped if they had done a better job marketing it.

[clearspira]

Once again, loving Chaos Mode. Its like the old days again.

As for the film, is it better than Into Darkness? Yes. Because at least Beyond has an original plot and they dialled back Pine!Kirk's obnoxiousness. He is starting to feel like someone who could actually be the younger version of Captain Kirk as opposed to some fratboy. Its funny how Fry came off as more humble and compassionate in Futurama than this guy.

But is Beyond a good film? No. Still far too much wrong with it. 4/10 at best. My top 6:

1) They made Sulu gay because George Takei is gay. And far from the latter praising them for their awesome move, he actually came out and said that he always played Sulu as hetero and he thought the whole thing was pandering. *Slow handclap*
2) The USS Franklin breaks canon. Its launch date is after the NX-01 and yet is described as Starfleet's fastest ship at warp 4. *Slow handclap*
3) The universal translator in this film is the largest, most cumbersome, most impractical UT we have ever seen. Hoshi was building better ones a century before.
4) Krall apparently did F- all with his massive army for a 100 years. I guess they learned nothing from Nero doing F-all for 20 years.
5) Worst main starship death in the history of the franchise. It blows up quickly, it is forgotten about, a new one is built.
6) That female alien crewmember with the crab legs on the back of her head. That evolved how exactly? What was the point? Not quite Ocampa levels of BS, but its up there.

[Fianna]

6) That female alien crewmember with the crab legs on the back of her head. That evolved how exactly? What was the point? Not quite Ocampa levels of BS, but its up there.

To block or intercept blows to the back of the head?

[Darth Wedgius]

I appreciate the decon/recon intent behind the movie, thanks to SFDebris's review. But I watched half of it on Hulu and just never got around to finishing it before I canceled my subscription months later.

Going from what I've heard, it probably is the best of the Kelvinverse films, at least for old-school fans who, unlike me, were able to forge an emotional connection to these characters.

Though the three films have a trend of sorts...
Star Trek (2009) Spock fails and there are repercussions
Star Trek Into Darkness Part of Starfleet plays fast and loose and there are repercussions.
Star Trek Beyond Member of Starfleet flips out and there are repercussions.

In all three movies, to one degree or another, the plot seems to revolve around cleaning up after their mistakes. Maybe they should have all stayed home after all.

[CrypticMirror]

5) Worst main starship death in the history of the franchise. It blows up quickly, it is forgotten about, a new one is built.
6) That female alien crewmember with the crab legs on the back of her head. That evolved how exactly? What was the point? Not quite Ocampa levels of BS, but its up there.

I liked this movie, the scenes with the music apart of course. I agree that the getting a new Enterprise is completely unearned at the end of the movie. PineKirk got his crew slaughtered wholesale and his ship destroyed because of an act of arrogance way worse than even Real Kirk underestimating Khan in WoK. It was ridiculous he was not cashiered, even if he did eventually defeat Idris Elba's character. And a new Enterprise? It seems far more likely that after that debacle the name Enterprise would be quietly retired for a generation or two, as often happens with ships whose voyages end in disaster. It failed to evoke an emotional reaction, and it felt unearned to suggest that this version of Kirk should be given it.

The emotional core of the movie was Spock and McCoy, and Scotty and Jaylah. Pine Kirk is just along for the ride. The teaser with the small aliens was fun though. I put this on par with Search For Spock in the Trek pantheon. It is fun, it is a bit camp, it fills a space, and it is okay enough to watch if you turn your brain off. It is just that Pine Kirk is the weakest link it, even if he is a lot better in this than in others. It is not Pine's fault, he is a great actor when given the chance, but this series just didn't give him the material to work with.

As for crab head hands lady, I'm gonna call this a secondary sexual characteristic of her species, an evolutionary relic, because that makes the least nonsensical way of describing it.

[MerelyAFan]

Star Trek Beyond feels like the Enterprise Season 4 of the Kelvin films. It has its problems no doubt, but something that feels like its starting come into its own and show signs of deeper and more interesting character work. But it was not to be.

I think in hindsight Paramount deeply underestimated both how much the general moviegoers had moved on to shiner/cooler toys (with the MCU providing hit after hit) and how badly Into Darkness had turned off the hardcore set, to the point where there simply was no audience there come 2016. By contrast, Nu-Who not only had continuous media out on the market for years leading up to its 50th anniversary, but the main thrust in the TV show was still fairly popular to boot. Trek by contrast lost a lot of its momentum after the long time between ST:09 and ST:ID, and did little to regain in in the years following the latter.

It is telling to me that I've seen numerous comments from people that ended up watching Beyond later and stating what a pleasant surprise it was, to the point where they outright said it was their favorite of the reboot film and wishing the other ones were more like it. Like Enterprise Season 4, it was a promising entry that came too little, too late to undo the loss of hype and fan disinterest.

[Robovski]

It is telling to me that I've seen numerous comments from people that ended up watching Beyond later and stating what a pleasant surprise it was, to the point where they outright said it was their favorite of the reboot film and wishing the other ones were more like it. Like Enterprise Season 4, it was a promising entry that came too little, too late to undo the loss of hype and fan disinterest.

I'm one of those people. I didn't catch it until it was free on a streaming service and I was pleasantly surprised. Shame by that point it was way too late.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

It's a fun movie that tries much harder than the previous couple of films to interact with 40 years of Star Trek history in a positive way. It was nice to see the characters, particularly Kirk, acting more like "themselves" and actually venturing out into space a bit.

There are definitely downsides to the film. Idris Elba is wasted in a lackluster role, and it did feel like a waste to destroy the Enterprise. But I would take a 4th Kelvinverse movie in the vein of Beyond every single time over what's being done with Trek on tv right now. Given what I thought the state of the movies was around Into Darkness, that's a pretty big turnaround.

[MerelyAFan]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/film13.php

Having recently rewatched it, it almost feels like the inverse of Search for Spock in some respects. Whereas that film is a solidish movie buoyed up by the films before and after it, Beyond is almost a movie that I enjoy more I ignore 09 and Into Darkness.

It has elements that build on elements in those two, but Kirk's characterization feels like such a positive contrast and the deconstructive elements seem far more relevant to Trek prior to 2009 that its very easy for me to just sit back and take in Beyond largely in a vacuum. Personally, even the destruction of the Enterprise has about as much emotional impact with or without the two new movies taken into account.

Still, if this is indeed the end of the Kelvin timeline, at least it ended on a high note.