Spoilers STAR TREK BEYOND - Grading & Discussion

[Amaris]

Won't rehash most of what has already been discussed
However,
As Balthazar (Garth of Izar rebooted) saw his more human reflection in the floating shards of glass a you saw that moment of recognition in his eye I really thought he would remember a piece of his lost humanity and help Kirk with the jammed airlock
Moment of redemption was a HUGE missed opportunity and one that ever TOS episode with captain gone mad, had. And of course a moralistic lecture from Kirk would have been terrific urging Edison on to help and to remember the man he was, to be that man again and make a difference.
Ending would have been less summer popcorn, more in line with Trek, and more poignant.
Edison (Izar) remembering his lost humanity and breaking down with Kirk in offering him a place in this new world a chance to regain his lost humanity and purpose would have been awesome.

Because moralistic lectures are what I want to see at the apex of the film. That's what Kirk did in TWOK, TSFS, TFF, and TUC. Kirk gave a lecture, the bad guys relented. In GEN, FC, INS, and NEM, Picard gave a lecture at the critical moment of the film, and suddenly the bad guy stopped in his tracks and reconsidered his actions. Right? Right? That's what happened? I'm not remembering this incorrectly?

 

[Enterprise1701]

Checked Memory Alpha. Did not realize that Jessica Wolff and Anderson Le, whose personnel photos were shown, were Kalara and Manas.

Edison said:

"The indigenous race abandoned this planet long ago. They left behind sophisticated mining equipment and a drone workforce"

Ah, I misinterpreted that line. Now I understand why none of the troopers ever took off their helmets.

 

[section9]

Saw the movie with some family. My wife, who is NOT a Trek fan, loved the film. Got some applause at the end of the movie.

This movie has some legs, IMHO.

 

[somebuddyX]

I thought it was okay. My sister liked it more than me. I would have liked some scenes to be fleshed out more. Was hoping for some TOS-style gladiatorial combat on the planet with the classic fight music.

 

[bhldev]

Hi,

Joined this forum (and made a blog review) because of this film.

It's basically as good as the 3rd film could get, promising for future films... it's certainly better than ID4 and the rest out this summer.

Nice and simple, and I agree with the 100 review on Rotten Tomatoes... this movie couldn't come at a better time.

It's good to have a villain whose motives are simple, pure and personal. It's also what I consider new territory for Trek, since the idea the Federation isn't great for everyone hasn't truly been explored... I would like another movie later, about how "Federation" truly marginalises some people... this deviates from Gene's original vision, but is a path Trek eventually has to take if it wants to hit a billion dollar movie.

 

[plynch]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, that I actually thought the villain would have redemption and help Kirk and thus offer us hope. Nope. Killed by the good guy, ta-da. Good guys win, civilization saved. These films are just dull, to me. Again, like what you like. I don't like Mozart or Billie Holiday, and I know the fault lies in me.

 

[Belz...]

Well, I just saw it in theatres and, although I don't understand grading systems like this, I'll say it was "good", but not more.

The 2009 movie was pretty great, despite its flaws. It was entertaining and showed a good understanding of what made the original series so awesome. The second movie wasn't as good and had more flaws but was very entertaining. This one's all about fluff. A few really good moments, but otherwise I'd say it's very standard, run-of-the-mill stuff. The Enterprise gets treated like a dumb object rather than the lady she was originally, and there's really not much to say about the plot. It was enjoyable to a degree but it's not one of the better Treks, in my opinion. I'll certainly buy it, but only because it's a movie of that franchise and it works with the other two.

 

[bhldev]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, that I actually thought the villain would have redemption and help Kirk and thus offer us hope. Nope. Killed by the good guy, ta-da. Good guys win, civilization saved. These films are just dull, to me. Again, like what you like. I don't like Mozart or Billie Holiday, and I know the fault lies in me.

He picked... he looked in the mirror, he had his chance to make his decision and he made it (take the glass to try and kill Kirk) so he had his chance.

And Kirk standing over him and saying "that's what I was taught"... one liners like "you won the peace"... while trying to kill each other... that's about as much as makes sense in an action movie.

Some people are just attached to the past and unless everything stays the same they don't care if the future's destroyed if it's not their future. Better everyone else go to the same dark place they are and suffer together. Very selfish, and very real. I think it's just that people don't believe characters like Edison should exist in Trek... but after DS9, we know there's legions of Edisons who don't fit in the Federation Utopia... Starfleet isn't a military, who needs that garbage definitely legions of Edisons...

...to me the hope is, Edison didn't win. He was wrong (just think, if there had been two of him on Yorktown, it would have worked...)

 

[Mr Light]

I thought the movie was pretty good. I'd probably rank it third best by a smidge, just because the villain was extremely uninteresting until the very end. Idris Elba was really wasted in this role. That was a hell of a plot twist at the end, though! And great action scenes.

Super bonus nerd points for multiple references to Star Trek: Enterprise!!!

I think Into the Darkness was the best of the three, though the Khan rip off ending is pretty unfortunate. Loved loved Section 31 and Peter Weller as the baddies though!!! Star Trek '09 was a solid movie and a lot of fun. Nero was a pretty disposable villain, but I still think he was more interesting than Krell.

 

[bhldev]

I thought the movie was pretty good. I'd probably rank it third best by a smidge, just because the villain was extremely uninteresting until the very end. Idris Elba was really wasted in this role. That was a hell of a plot twist at the end, though! And great action scenes.

Super bonus nerd points for multiple references to Star Trek: Enterprise!!!

Yeah after Pacific Rim I was expecting a speech... from Idris to his troops at the VERY least... really unfortunate

Glad I rated the movie just an A- and not higher

 

[Romulan_spy]

Kirk clearly calls for shields to be raised before the swarm attacks yet we never see any visual indication of shield impacts nor any dialogue about the state of the shields. Can we assume the Swarm hits the Enterprise before the shields had time to go up? If the shields were up when the Swarm attacks, then they did not seem to do anything.

Also, I know fans have long debated about how skinny struts for the nacelles creates a weak point that an enemy could attack. This movie seems to finally address this point, where the Swarm deliberately snap the nacelles off the Enterprise by attacking the struts. It was nice to see that vulnerability illustrated on the big screen.

 

[Keith1701]

A from me, I have already seen STAR TREK BEYOND twice. Lots of action.

 

[Amaris]

Kirk clearly calls for shields to be raised before the swarm attacks yet we never see any visual indication of shield impacts nor any dialogue about the state of the shields. Can we assume the Swarm hits the Enterprise before the shields had time to go up? If the shields were up when the Swarm attacks, then they did not seem to do anything.

Also, I know fans have long debated about how skinny struts for the nacelles creates a weak point that an enemy could attack. This movie seems to finally address this point, where the Swarm deliberately snap the nacelles off the Enterprise by attacking the struts. It was nice to see that vulnerability illustrated on the big screen.

I believe it was Sulu or Chekov who said something along the lines of harmonic frequencies being utterly ignored, that the swarm was easily penetrating the shields.

 

[Lance]

Saw it last night. It's got a very different tone to the other Kelvin-verse movies, but in many ways also feels much more traditionally 'Star Trekky' than what has gone before. It's clear the writers decided to overtly pay homage to the spirit of Classic Trek more, and from the characters all being much more mature to the setting being a genuinely 'strange new world', the movie manages to straddle the line effectively between being a very modern Star Trek but also paying kisses to the past. A newspaper review I read declared that "In trying to appeal to both core-Trekkies and the casual audience STB strangely manages to do neither", but I'd disagree..... I actually think the movie felt on the right side of being just like the Star Trek we all knew while still not being so super obsessive that the casuals can't enjoy it. My only criticism was that the scenario in some ways felt very trad, but on the other hand I think they did very clever things with it and unlike Star Trek Into Darkness this movie didn't feel derivative of any one particular Star Trek story. The team behind the movie deserve kudos for very actively trying to bring a new spin, and while aspects of the 'revenge plot' were obviously familiar, at no time did I ever feel I was just watching a derivative of The Wrath of Khan (something I couldn't say about Nemesis, the 2009 Trek *or* Into Darkness.) From that perspective, it's by far the freshest, most openly different take on the movie franchise since Insurrection, and even possibly since 1996's First Contact. For the first time in a long time I felt like I was watching a NEW Star Trek movie.

 

[mswood]

I believe it was Sulu or Chekov who said something along the lines of harmonic frequencies being utterly ignored, that the swarm was easily penetrating the shields.

Yeah the movie had dialogue indicating the swarm was capable of penetrating shields frequencies.

 

[bhldev]

Kirk clearly calls for shields to be raised before the swarm attacks yet we never see any visual indication of shield impacts nor any dialogue about the state of the shields. Can we assume the Swarm hits the Enterprise before the shields had time to go up? If the shields were up when the Swarm attacks, then they did not seem to do anything.

Also, I know fans have long debated about how skinny struts for the nacelles creates a weak point that an enemy could attack. This movie seems to finally address this point, where the Swarm deliberately snap the nacelles off the Enterprise by attacking the struts. It was nice to see that vulnerability illustrated on the big screen.

Krull was monitoring the Yorktown and Enterprise long enough to formulate a plan to steal an ancient Alien artifact and plant a spy. It's safe to say he got the shield frequencies somehow (even though it should be the most classified information on a ship... bad Scotty... maybe shields only have one frequency in Neroverse...)

 

[Amaris]

Yeah the movie had dialogue indicating the swarm was capable of penetrating shields frequencies.

Indeed. I got to see the film two nights ago, and some of the details are a bit fuzzy now. I need to see it about a hundred more times before I feel comfortable quoting it. Of course, once I own the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo that will become easy. Not so easy when tickets are $9 each.

Krull was monitoring the Yorktown and Enterprise long enough to formulate a plan to steal an ancient Alien artifact and plant a spy. It's safe to say he got the shield frequencies somehow (even though it should be the most classified information on a ship... bad Scotty... maybe shields only have one frequency in Neroverse...)

It doesn't even have to be shield frequencies. Shields are projected energy fields. Energy fields can be disrupted.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I believe it was Sulu or Chekov who said something along the lines of harmonic frequencies being utterly ignored, that the swarm was easily penetrating the shields.

Right you are. I remember the quote now. They say something like "I've tried all the shield frequencies. Nothing is working". It is still a shame that shields seem to always be useless when the plot calls for it. It would have been better if we had seen the shields works for a bit then fail. The E lost the battle too easily.

 

[Amaris]

Right you are. I remember the quote now. They say something like "I've tried all the shield frequencies. Nothing is working". It is still a shame that shields seem to always be useless when the plot calls for it. It would have been better if we had seen the shields works for a bit then fail. The E lost the battle too easily.

I'm not sure I agree she lost easily. Look at the ridiculous level of punishment she took while trying to shelter her crew from harm. Brings a tear to my eye thinking about it.

 

[BillJ]

The E lost the battle too easily.

A type of warfare it simply wasn't designed to combat. Shields are great if you're trying to deflect a blast or two at a time. But I can see them easily collapsing when getting hit by thousands of projectiles simultaneously.