TheRetroCritic

I talk about the new reboot sequel Star Trek Beyond . Live long and prosper.

Star Trek is back with yet another big-screen reboot sequel and, since the darker Star Trek Into Darkness  promised a return to the brighter tone of the old TV series in the next instalment, Star Trek Beyond had its work cut out, especially following its much-criticised first teaser trailer. The good news is that this is very easily the "Trekkiest" of all the reboot movies and, like a few of the old Star Trek movies, it feels like an extended episode of The Original Series... in a good way. Packed with lots of loving references from Spock's trademark eyebrow raise to Kirk always ripping his shirt and McCoy being thrown into situations he's not too keen on, this manages to be a fun homage without feeling like fan-fiction. With Justin Lin replacing J.J. Abrams as director, you can certainly expect more action, a LOT more action in fact, as this movie makes Into Darkness look like a business meeting. You've got the Enterprise being torn to shreds by space bees,

(SPOILER-FREE REVIEW) "I. Am. Better." "At what?" "Everything." That's the conversation Benedict Cumberbatch's villain has with Chris Pine's Kirk in the trailers for this new J.J. Abrams Trek outing Star Trek: Into Darkness . And, you know what? This movie could have easily had the exact same conversation with the first Star Trek reboot. Yes, it is, indeed, better. At everything. As the title suggests, Into Darkness is darker (duh!) but it's also bigger and more fun. Which is not to say it's perfect, no Star Trek movie is, but it sets out to be a superior sequel and achieves just that. This time around, more emphasis is placed on the film's villain and, considering how forgettable Eric Bana's bitter future Romulan was in the first movie, this is certainly a good move. Especially since Benedict Cumberbatch's John Harrisson is such a good villain, the Sherlock actor stealing the show in almost every scene he&#

Rebooting/continuing the Star Trek franchise was never going to be easy. What were they supposed to do? Make a movie based on the flop series Enterprise ? Invent a brand new Star Trek crew, give them their own movie and hope for the best? Give one of the old crews their weight in gold to stick around and continue making Star Trek movies? With J.J. Abrams onboard, in the end the goal became to restart the franchise with the Original Series crew, except with a brand new, younger cast, tons of action, state of the art special effects and try to somehow create a parallel timeline within the film itself in order to keep things fresh and avoid remaking the old show and the old movies shot-for-shot. Probably the only logical approach, but still pretty risky. The result was an epic, expensive blockbuster with enough action to keep even the most reluctant viewers entertained. An origins story, we got to see Kirk and co.'s pre-Enterprise days and their earliest of missions which a

After two outings heavily reliant on comic relief and having a lighter tone altogether, The Undiscovered Country comes in with the director of The Wrath Of Khan at hand and a much more political plot far easier to take seriously than anything involving whales or crazy cat ladies. This was a return to form for the series which had become more cute and campy than legitimately involving sci-fi. Here we have what is basically the Cold War in space but with Shakespearian Klingons, sexy shape-shifting aliens and... Vulcan Kim Cattrall. All weird, wonderful stuff so far, I think you'll agree. This time, the overall tone mixes serious with playful much more convincingly and it never really goes too far one way or the other making this the most balanced Star Trek flick in a while. It has its fun moments with Kirk and McCoy having to deal with being unjustly exiled to some snow/desert planet and Uhura trying to get to grips with the Klingon language but it takes itself somewhat seriou

Why The Voyage Home is always included in the good even numbered Star Trek flicks is pretty darn strange. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate Star Trek IV, actually it's a pretty fun watch, it's just that... Whales? Really?! Star Trek has always had a sense of humour to it and that's fine. Usually in the Original Series it kept its lols for the very last scene, though. And that was usually enough. But a whole movie of just lols? I'm scared... The Voyage Home takes place right after The Search For Spock , though it really doesn't need to, and the gang is still using that Klingon ship Christopher Lloyd so generously lent them. The Federation is pissed off at them for going on their nutty searching-for-one-dead-Vulcan mission but it turns out that the Earth itself is in peril due to a probe that's... making whale sounds and that's... bad for some reason because... whales... don't exist in the future? No, I'm not making this up.

For me, this movie is why the whole odd numbers curse thing just doesn't work. Do people really love The Wrath Of Khan and not like The Search For Spock ?  Illogical doesn't begin to describe it... Yes The Wrath Of Khan was a good, fun movie but so is this one! I mean, no Star Trek movie is perfect and neither is The Search For Spock: some of the humour in it is a bit corny, the whole Spock-is-inside-McCoy thing is needlessly delayed (though Deforest Kelley acting nuts is ALWAYS worth it) and Leonard Nimoy's Spock isn't physically in the film for most of it. That said, there's plenty of great, epic stuff in the film. For one thing, there's plenty of action as Klingons finally take centre stage on the big-screen and follow-up on the whole using-Genesis-as-a-weapon thing and one of them is played by Christopher Lloyd, which is awesome in itself. Plus the actual search for Spock, besides being a mission I can totally get behind, is handled really well

After the relatively slow-paced, somewhat psychedelic, Kubrick-esque first movie outing for the Star Trek gang, they all returned for The Wrath Of Khan , a far more action-oriented sequel with a significant villain who isn't a giant space anus. Though personality-wise, he's not far off. This sequel is often on people's Best Star Trek Movies list, right at the top, and it's easy to see why: you've got a cruel enemy out for revenge, Chekov with brain bugs in his ears, Kirk screaming "KHAAAAN!", a doomsday machine of sorts, that infamous ending but, most importantly, it's just very entertaining and much closer to the Star Trek blockbuster format fans were hoping for. Ricardo Montalban is what most people remember about this one, mostly because of the ridiculous attire his character, we assume, made for himself during his banishment on a barren planet but also because of that glorious mullet, those weirdly toned old-man-pecs, his sadistic hate for C

As he took on the very first Star Trek movie, director Robert Wise certainly had his work cut out. Pleasing fans of the original series while translating a somewhat cartoonish 60's show into a legitimate, impressive 70's space opera to rival Star Wars was never going to be easy. How to bring these characters back together? How to update the look of the show without sucking all the iconic charm out of it? Turns out: by making a really long episode :S Yes this Star Trek isn't so much the big, awesome movie you'd expect but rather an extended episode of the original series with different sets, different costumes and better (but still mostly cheesy) effects. Which is not to say it's bad, even if critics and audiences over the years have panned it quite a bit, it's actually very decent (a very decent episode that is). As a movie... Star Wars this isn't. To give you an idea: it takes about 35 minutes for the main crew of The Enterprise to come togeth