[8]

J.J. Abrams hands the reigns to director Justin Lin (director of several Fast and Furious movies), working from a script co-written by Scotty (Simon Pegg). The result? A pretty solid entry in the Star Trek franchise, possibly the best of the three newest films. The plot involves your standard new bad guy (Idris Elba) trying to get his hands on a big, nasty weapon that will hurt a lot of people. That part doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get to spend time with the famous Star Trek characters. When Elba’s character attacks and destroys the Enterprise, the crew are separated and spend most of act two trying to get back together again. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban) are together (always a wonderful pairing) nursing Spock’s injury while calling for help. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin) are together, trying to reach the crashed saucer section. Meanwhile, Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are captured by Elba’s character and get to hear all his Dr. No-like explanations for his evil deeds. That leaves Scotty (Simon Pegg), who meets up with an alien warrior woman (Sofia Boutella) who lends a hand in the continuing action.

And the action is really good! Lin delivers what is probably the most action-packed Star Trek movie ever, but not at the expense of drama and earnest emotion. The screenplay is the least tortured of the reboot trilogy. It lets go of nostalgia and has the confidence to let its characters own the story and the screen. After the tangled plotting of the previous two films, I found Star Trek: Beyond very refreshing as a stand-alone adventure.

Oscar Nomination: Best Makeup & Hairstyling