Star Trek Beyond: 10 Things It Did Better Than J.J. Abrams

I touched on this point in my introduction, but it really does warrant elaboration: Star Trek Beyond is a genuine Star Trek movie, an honest attempt to recapture the spirit, as well as the tone of the original series. Somehow, it manages to achieve just that, perfectly replicating the joyful optimism of Roddenberry’s creation, and successful navigating itself away from the sombre, gloomy cheerlessness of Into Darkness, which might as well be be the cinematic equivalent of pouring salt onto self-inflicted wounds.

Star Trek ’09 was trying too hard, and it ultimately came across as glorified fan-fiction, desperately trying to convince the audience it was legitimate, and failing as a direct result. Into Darkness went almost the opposite direction, becoming noticeably gloomier in an attempt to appeal to a more mature audience.

It was also a pandering mess which might have singlehandedly butchered one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history, and ruined one of the most iconic characters to ever grace the silver screen. Still, Beyond fixed all that.