REVIEW: Star Trek Beyond

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Chris Luckett

Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jurassic Park III, and Mission: Impossible III were all excellent third entries, each more than making up for the problems of its weak predecessor. In all of those cases, changing directors allowed a breath of fresh air into the property the third time around — in M:I III’s case, funnily enough, from J.J. Abrams.

Abrams’ next movie would be the 2009 Star Trek reboot, a thrilling adventure that redefined the franchise — which then swiftly became stale and unimaginative in his 2012 follow-up, Star Trek Into Darkness.

Now that Abrams has jumped from warp drives to hyper drives, Justin Lin has been hired to do for Star Trek what he did for Fast & Furious movies 3-6, and he proves to be just what the series needed to once again shoot for the stars.

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RANKED: Star Trek

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Chris Luckett

Star Trek celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, with the original TV series having debuted in September 1966. Six — soon to be seven — series later, Star Trek is one of the most popular franchises in the world, thanks in no small part to its string of movies.

Over the 37 years since 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, there have been three different casts to helm the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, who have each steered the property through movies notably excellent and notably not.

As the 13th movie, Star Trek Beyond, open in theatres today, it’s the perfect time to look back on the film franchise that boldly went where no one had gone before. These are the Star Trek movies, from worst to best.

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CORE STORY: Chris Hemsworth beaming back aboard Star Trek

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Chris Luckett

The 2009 reboot Star Trek introduced the movie world to Chris Hemsworth, spring-boarding the career of the man who would be Thor.

His character, father to James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), may have given his life in the opening scene of the 2009 picture, but that hasn’t stopped him signing on to co-star with Pine and Zachary Quinto in Star Trek 4.

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CORE STORY: Star Trek cast stands against George Takei’s anti- “Gay Sulu” comments

Photo: George Takei

Photo: Getty Images

Chris Luckett

Star Trek has been more inclusive and progressive than any TV/movie franchise its age or size has ever been, yet has never had an openly gay major character until now.

Hikaru Sulu, originally played by George Takei and more recently by John Chu, has been revealed to be gay in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. But George Takei is not okay with Sulu being gay. Continue reading