STAR TREK BEYOND
Thrilling, hopeful space adventure for discerning adults.
Should You Watch It?
STAR TREK BEYOND is a thrilling space adventure with a cohesive plot and story structure. Its moral center is unusually solid: hope, unity, loyalty, self-sacrifice, defending life, and caring for friends and family all stand against revenge and egomaniacal violence.
The movie also works as an entertaining homage to earlier STAR TREK stories and classic science-fiction adventures. But the content costs are substantial. It contains at least 24 obscenities, three to five distinct profanities, scary action violence, and brief politically correct cultural implications. The staging and cinematography sometimes weaken the experience, too.
If you are a discerning adult who can weigh those concerns, this is worth seeing for its hopeful moral vision and exciting adventure. For family viewing with children or young teens, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAfter three years of exploring new worlds, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are each considering whether to leave the Starship Enterprise behind. Their crew’s rest on the immense Yorktown space station ends when a distressed female alien reports that her ship has crashed on a nearby planet.
Kirk takes the Enterprise to investigate, but the rescue mission is a trap. A vicious alien named Krall attacks the ship, captures crew members, and seeks a mysterious artifact connected to a weapon powerful enough to destroy a Federation outpost.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a highly entertaining, well-structured space adventure, even though its execution is uneven. The plot is more cohesive than the previous two STAR TREK movies, with a clear premise and a strong sense of purpose. Its references to earlier STAR TREK stories and classic science-fiction films make it an affectionate homage.
The weaknesses are mainly visual and technical. Some staging and cinematography diminish the movie. Early fight scenes use too many close-ups and choppy edits, making them confusing and uninvolving. At times, the intended homage looks more like bad CGI and phony sets.
The Worldview
The film’s worldview emphasizes hope, unity, loyalty, and sacrificing yourself for your friends. It presents working together as the way to overcome evil, and it treats protecting and defending life as the true duty of anyone in authority. Revenge, cruelty, selfishness, and egomaniacal violence are clearly condemned.
The movie also includes diversity and a soft multiculturalism, though the source notes that diversity is not always presented as a virtue. Its emphasis on unity can reflect the American motto “Out of Many One.” There are slight references to Christian, redemptive values such as self-sacrifice and hope, along with one possible appeal to God.
The film includes a brief implied homosexual relationship involving Lt. Sulu, a male partner, and their young daughter. This is a politically correct cultural element that the source finds gratuitous and distracting.
At its best, STAR TREK BEYOND argues that hope and self-sacrifice can overcome violence and revenge. Scripture likewise calls us to overcome evil with good: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Solid but light moral worldview extolling hope, unity, loyalty, sacrifice yourself for your friends, diversity (which sometimes is not a virtue), one possible appeal to God, and standing against cruelty and egomaniacal violence, with slight references to Christian, redemptive values such as self-sacrifice and hope, plus some light, brief politically correct implications such as an implied homosexual relationship between Lt. Sulu and a male “partner” (they apparently have a young “daughter”) and a soft multiculturalism, but in the context of unity that’s also reflective of the American motto of E Pluribus Unum, “Out of Many One”; at least 24 obscenities (mostly “h” and “d” words but including some “s” words) and three to five distinct profanities; lots of action violence, some of it very scary and disturbing, but also sometimes exciting and involving, including several people having their life drained from them, little creatures yell about being eaten and turn against man and bite him as if they’re going to eat the man, multiple phaser gun blasts, direct killing and strangling by villain, villain uses weapon that seems to consume people or turn them into dust particles, swarms of small metal, indestructible spaceships smash into spaceships, large objects and people, Dr. McCoy has to pull out a small object that’s impaled Mr. Spock’s side, and some hand-to-hand, martial arts style combat; very light sexual references includes spaceship captain talks about crew members hooking up with one another, an opening scene shows couple walks into a room together, an interspecies couple exits a room together, sexual suggestiveness, and an implied homosexual partnership with a young “daughter” involved; no nudity; promotional alcohol use includes woman drinks a lot to “take the edge off,” but it doesn’t appear to do so; no smoking or drugs; and, villain is consumed by revenge.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The crew survives by working together rather than pursuing personal revenge. When have you seen unity protect others from harm?
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 · Philippians 2:3–4The film presents self-sacrifice for friends as a virtue. What makes sacrifice loving rather than merely reckless?
John 15:13 · Romans 12:1Krall is consumed by revenge. What does Scripture teach about surrendering revenge to God?
Romans 12:19–21The movie presents defending life as a responsibility of authority. How should Christians use whatever authority they have to protect others?
Proverbs 31:8–9 · Micah 6:8The Final Word
STAR TREK BEYOND is a cohesive, exciting adventure with a hopeful moral center. Its profanity, scary violence, and brief politically correct cultural content make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults who can handle those concerns, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For younger viewers, consider.
