Spoilers STAR TREK BEYOND - Grading & Discussion

[urbandefault]

This is easily the best of the three "K-verse" movies. Lots of fun, felt like old time Trek. The cast look like adults now, not a bunch of college kids.

Not sure what's up with putting Quinto in a wig this time. It was distracting. And in one scene on the Franklin, his eyebrows were suddenly heavier. In the next scene, back to normal. I took points off for that.

Otherwise, a solid A.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I liked the film, it's definitely the most Trekky of NuTrek. I liked the visuals a lot, particularly the idea of a swarm of tiny ships instead of just throwing in bigger giant warship, and the way they used tilted orientations. I also liked the way they made use of the entire cast instead of just Kirk and Spock, and they brought back some of the Kirk cleverness from the original series instead of just having him shoot everyone. And finally, a NuTrek movie not bogged down in references.

There were negatives too of course. The main villain was a little lacking and the philosophical debate about "Man finding strength through struggle" was a bit forced. I had trouble believing that James Kirk would EVER want to become an admiral even if he changed his mind.

And this is neither a positive or a negative, but they TOTALLY copped Jaylah's appearance from the Asari.

Overall, the first NuTrek movie that felt kind of like a Trek movie.

 

[BillJ]

This is easily the best of the three "K-verse" movies. Lots of fun, felt like old time Trek. The cast look like adults now, not a bunch of college kids.

I'm not sure it is the best (I do love it). But it definitely has a different tempo from the other two Abrams films.

The thing that blew me away was that this is the most "real" a Star Trek production has ever felt. It felt like a living, breathing world.

 

[Romulan_spy]

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.

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.

Fair enough. it is true that the Swarm was simply overwhelming. I just hated to see our hero ship lose. Seeing the saucer section crash on the planet was heartbreaking.

 

[Lance]

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.

A decent equivalent is the USS Odyssey versus the Jem Hadar. In my mind, I kind of like to imagine the Odyssey battle would have looked a lot more like the 'swarm of locusts' sequence seen in ST Beyond, if they'd only had the money to achieve it at that time on a TV budget.

 

[BillJ]

Fair enough. it is true that the Swarm was simply overwhelming. I just hated to see our hero ship lose. Seeing the saucer section crash on the planet was heartbreaking.

Hated to watch her go down. But the most heartbreaking loss, was watching the Enterprise-D destroyed by an 80 year old Bird-of-Prey.

 

[Lance]

Fair enough. it is true that the Swarm was simply overwhelming. I just hated to see our hero ship lose. Seeing the saucer section crash on the planet was heartbreaking.

I actually agree, but I also loved the way they really showed the ship breaking to pieces. There was a real sense of the terror involved, as it literally breaks apart. I don't think a ship destruction in Trek has ever been shown quite as viscerally, in the past we've always been a little more detached emotionally from what the characters must really be feeling. This time it was like we were really there, experiencing everything they were.

 

[Amaris]

I actually agree, but I also loved the way they really showed the ship breaking to pieces. There was a real sense of the terror involved, as it literally breaks apart. I don't think a ship destruction in Trek has ever been shown quite as viscerally, in the past we've always been a little more detached emotionally from what the characters must really be feeling.

This! At one point you could hear the beams bending and snapping, the ship felt like it was heavy and had great mass, and suddenly this mass was working against her. It felt real to me, more than any previous starship.

 

[Lance]

Another thing I liked was the dramatic parallel with the 2009 movie opening. Kirk celebrates his birthday (which is also the day his father was killed), and then there's that brilliant moment where he's left alone on the bridge, the ship crumbling away beneath him, and you can see in his face the dramatic irony that here he is, facing the very situation his dad did on the very same day all those years ago.

 

[Overgeeked]

Solid B. It's a solid Star Trek film. First of the Kelvin timeline movies that actually felt like Star Trek in anything more than name only. Still utterly despise the anachronisms. The dirt bike and the pop music were suspension of disbelief shattering. The plot doesn't make any sense. I pissed off captain is stranded on a planet with life-extending technology and an army of drone soldiers with plenty of swarm ships...but instead of fixing their own ship or just...I dunno...leaving in the drone ships, they stay there to plot their revenge for 100+ years. Good thing the most advanced starbase in the Federation was built / stationed like five minutes away. But then it's Trek, the plot doesn't have to make any sense. Was hoping that their 1701-A would have been something of an update / upgrade / refit. Still way too frenetic for my tastes. Like a virgin male's first time having sex. Gogogogogogogo!!!!

The quick scene with Sulu's family was great, as were the lingering shots on Sulu whenever the threat to the Yorktown was brought up. The opening was funny. Nice nod to the camp silliness that is Trek. I loved the advanced nature of the Yorktown and we finally get a good shot of actual alien diversity in Trek. That was really cool. The characters rang true, finally. The pairings of characters was great planetside. The quick convo between Krall and Kirk at the end was nice. Even if it's thin as paper, at least there's an attempt at honest Trek philosophy put into the film.

 

[BillJ]

The plot doesn't make any sense. I pissed off captain is stranded on a planet with life-extending technology and an army of drone soldiers with plenty of swarm ships...but instead of fixing their own ship or just...I dunno...leaving in the drone ships, they stay there to plot their revenge for 100+ years.

I don't think they were plotting their revenge for 100 years. They plotted their revenge when the Federation built a Starbase within a stones throw of their territory.

 

[Belz...]

Hated to watch her go down. But the most heartbreaking loss, was watching the Enterprise-D destroyed by an 80 year old Bird-of-Prey.

Personally I thought the destruction of the original enterprise in ST III was more heartbreaking because it was actually a well-done scene,.

 

[bhldev]

Fair enough. it is true that the Swarm was simply overwhelming. I just hated to see our hero ship lose. Seeing the saucer section crash on the planet was heartbreaking.

It was actually said by Spock... "we are not prepared for this type of engagement"...

...presumably he saw it coming a mile away. Which means that the Federation does have some kind of defence for swarms of hundreds of fighter craft... probably specialized ships working in a fleet, to handle it especially after the Xindi / Romulan war. In a real war the E would be surrounded by smaller ships like the 2009 fleet and some of them would handle fighter defense

 

[BillJ]

Personally I thought the destruction of the original enterprise in ST III was more heartbreaking because it was actually a well-done scene,.

I thought it was a proper send-off for the "original" Enterprise. I have no problem with ships being destroyed, unless the way they were destroyed sucks ass, like the Enterprise-D.

I loved the way the ship went down in this movie.

 

[BillJ]

In a real war the E would be surrounded by smaller ships like the 2009 fleet and some of them would handle fighter defense

But Star Trek has never worked that way. In universe, the movie was totally consistent with the rest of Trek.

 

[bhldev]

But Star Trek has never worked that way. In universe, the movie was totally consistent with the rest of Trek.

Well, it works that way if you are Vulcan, and spitting distance from Earth . But if it's DS9--Yorktown, it's just Kirk on shore leave. In terms of huge swarms of drone ships it's also not how Trek normally works... fighters and shuttles are basically inferior, anything without a warp core goes down fast, etc. Fighters basically showed their face in Dominion War, and then relatively large ones with warp cores and shields, not one-man pod-like things like Krull's. So I would generally disagree it's consistent with the rest of Trek, not that it actually bothers me. Maybe what Spock meant was, if they had a few more hours to prepare they could have rigged torpedoes to blow the swarm out of the sky.

Massive planet-sized starbases isn't how Trek normally works either... it was nice to see the Federation coming so far and Krull even saying "look how far they've come" I chalk it up to Spock giving them tech.

 

[BillJ]

Well, it works that way if you are Vulcan, and spitting distance from Earth .

It was a humanitarian mission, not combat. I doubt any of those ships were sent for support or defense of other ships, but to help Vulcan.

In terms of huge swarms of drone ships it's also not how Trek normally works...

Because the Swarm were new enemies. New enemies don't have 50 years of definable traits like the portrayal of Starfleet does.

 

[Mr Light]

What was the in-world reason to have massive starship sized tunnels running into the middle of the starbase? With waterway openings going into the city?

Aside from that weirdness, the Yorktown space station was absolutely gorgeous. One of my favorite sci-fi settings.

 

[BillJ]

What was the in-world reason to have massive starship sized tunnels running into the middle of the starbase? With waterway openings going into the city?

Economic use of space? There seems to be a central core where ships are worked on in a controlled environment. Maybe they thought people would want to watch on their lunch breaks in the plaza?

I have no clue. I'm just bullshitting here.

 

[BillJ]

All I know is that Discovery will have to bring their 'A' game to compete with the visuals from Star Trek Beyond.