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Jul 22, 2016 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

It’s the third entry of the Star Trek franchise’s latest incartion, and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise have stopped off at a Federation space colony for some brief but much-needed rest and relaxation. Exhausted after spending years in space, repeatedly saving the lives of his entire crew, Captain James T. Kirk has put in his application for a cushy desk job, far away from the all of the action. Before he can put his feet up and start pushing papers, he and his crew are sent on one final, routine rescue mission which, of course, escalates naturally and quickly into a life-and-death battle with the fate of all life in the known universe hanging in the balance.

Star Trek Beyond may stick to the series’ standard decorum, but by Spock’s ears it does it well. The movie feels like one of the TV shows’ most exciting away missions, with the Enterprise’s crew stranded on an uncharted planet and forced to rely on their own resourcefulness and quick thinking to thwart a genocidal space general. Sure, the franchise’s sillier trademarks are on full display—there are strange, alien species who conveniently look like beautiful human women, and excited men shouting sciencey-sounding words to one another as the screen shakes violently—but it tackles them with a self-aware sense of humor, and more than a fair dose of well-placed fan service.

It also succeeds outside the parameters of a Star Trek movie. Beyond is a fun, high-octane adventure—the stakes are sky-high before the first act’s even ended, and the plot barrels forward with little downtime for the audience to catch their breaths. An important takeaway—and one that other summer blockbusters could do well to follow suit—is that the movie clocks in under two hours once the credits have been factored out. While so many other huge sci-fi films would have wasted twenty minutes having three separate characters explain their movie’s superweapon MacGuffin through pseudo-technological buzz words, Star Trek Beyond is content to simply refer to theirs as “space bees” and show it ripping apart a few redshirts. Other big-budget screenwriters could learn from this movie’s economy.

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Author rating: 7/10