Photo: Paramount Pictures
Chris Luckett
Star Trek Beyond, the 13th movie in the franchise and third of “the reboot years,” opened at #1 over the weekend, managing to both disappoint and set a box office record.
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.
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.
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.
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
Photo: Artisan Entertainment
Chris Luckett
Movie trailers have evolved a great deal over the years, from the 6-minute packages shown after moving pictures in the 1910s (hence the term “trailer”) to boundary-pushing previews preceding movies in the 1970s to the heavily promoted online launches of trailers today. Recently, the worldwide launches for the debut trailers of movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation have actually been preceded in the days prior by trailers for their trailers. Continue reading
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
As a five-part feature, I’ll be counting down the best science-fiction through the history of cinema. From dinosaurs to aliens, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space, these are
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Chris Luckett
J.J. Abrams’s 2009 Star Trek was an exhilarating breath of fresh air for a franchise that had become stale and somewhat antiquated, despite its futuristic setting. By injecting his trademark cinematic flair and knack for gripping action, the reboot soared to heights not reached on the big screen since 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Low expectations four years ago made Abrams’s job easier; his follow-up arrives with much larger hype and much closer scrutiny. Continue reading
The Apple Box 