Summary
It’s been eight years sinceStar Trek Beyond, the best of J.J. Abrams' threeStar Trekmovies, was released. When the movie was released in 2016, I wasn’t particularly excited, given the disaster that wasStar Trek Into Darkness. Still, I trooped along to my local multiplex on opening night, hoping that, finally, this would be theChris PineStar Trekmoviethat managed to capture the spirit of Gene Roddenberry while also being an accessible summer blockbuster. Although I was still skeptical about this, I did concede that the signs were promising.
Although he wasn’t an obvious fit for the franchise, director Justin Lin’s work on theFast & Furiousmovies proved that he could handle the thrilling action set pieces that had become a key part ofJ.J. Abrams’Star Trekmovies. Simon Pegg’s cult sitcomSpaced, and his subsequentCornetto Trilogyof movies proved that he was a screenwriter who wore his nerd credentials on his sleeve. If he and co-writer Doug Jung could balance Pegg’s nerdy excesses with a solidStar Trekstory, then we’d be in for a treat. Thankfully, Lin, Pegg, and Jung’s work onStar Trek Beyondsucceeded on all fronts.
Star Trek Beyond Ending & Why No Sequel 8 Years Later Explained
Star Trek Beyond set up a sequel for Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and the Kelvin Timeline crew, but it’s 8 years later and we’ve yet to see Star Trek 4.
Star Trek Beyond Is The Best Of The Kelvin Timeline Movies
It’s a perfect blend of blockbuster excess and Roddenberry-style optimism.
Star Trek Beyondlearns from the mistakes made byStar Trek Into Darknessto deliver a blockbuster action movie that stays true to the spirit of the franchise. WhereInto Darknesswas inspired by the bleakness of Christopher Nolan’sBatmanmovies,Star Trek Beyondowes a debt to 2012’sThe Avengers.LikeThe Avengers,Star Trek Beyondis an ensemble piece that gives every key member of the Enterprise crew a genuine hero moment. InStar Trekterms,Beyondis the Kelvin Timeline movie that comes closest to recreatingStar Trek IV: The Voyage Homea.k.a “The One With The Whales”.
Star Trek Beyondwas dedicated to the memory ofStar Trek IV: The Voyage Homedirector and Spock actor, Leonard Nimoy.
Idris Elba’s villain, and the climactic battle to save Yorktown also feels like a substantial blockbuster upgrade on Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch’s fight scene inStar Trek Into Darkness. That saw Spock and Khan Noonien Singh jump from hovering freighter to hovering freighter against a drab Earth background.Star Trek Beyondgives us a Zero-G battle between Idris Elba and Chris Pine in a collapsing space station. It’s more dynamically directed, more in-character because it’s Kirk not Spock, and crucially, feels moreStar Trekthan the Earthbound slug-fest fromStar Trek Into Darkness.
I Wish We’d Got More Star Trek Movies Like Beyond
It finally allowed Chris Pine to step out of William Shatner’s shadow.
Star Trek Beyondwas the movie I wanted when J.J. Abrams rebooted the timeline back in 2009. It told a fresh story, with familiar characters, retoolingStar Trekfor the cinematic landscape of the mid-to-late 2010s. That’s what these movies should have been doing from the beginning, rather than getting hung up on existingStar Treklore. While Idris Elba’s villain and the USS FranklinconnectBeyondwith the Bakula era, those revelations are Easter eggs for die-hard fans, not turned into a major plot point to alienate the average movie goer.
I’d argue that the reasonStar Trek Beyondperformed poorly at the box office was becauseInto Darknesswas so incomprehensible that audiences weren’t keen to come back.
The problem withStar Trek into Darknessand, to a lesser extent,Star Trek 2009, was that they professed to be accessible to a new audience, but layered on heaps of lore and continuity. I’d argue that the reasonStar Trek Beyondperformed poorly at the box office was becauseInto Darknesswas so incomprehensible that audiences weren’t keen to come back. Leonard Nimoy passing the torch to Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto inStar Trek 2009was a touching send-off.Leonard Nimoy info-dumping about Khan Noonien Singh proved the script didn’t do enough to sell Benedict Cumberbatch as a villain.
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Ultimately,Star Trek Beyondshowed the way forward for the movies; standalone, blockbuster-scale adventures for the crew of the USS Enterprise. These adventures can play in the giant toy box that is theStar Trekuniverse, but a good story shouldn’t come second to headline-grabbing legacy characters. Sadly, the box office performance ofStar Trek Beyondappeared to teach Paramount Studios all the wrong lessons about the movie franchise, as its sequel remains in development hell eight years later. It’s disappointing becauseStar Trek Beyondwas the Kelvin Timeline crew’s finest hour, and they deserve one last hurrah.
