STAR TREK
An exhilarating new beginning with moral strengths and mature concerns.
Should You Watch It?
STAR TREK is a four-star popcorn movie. The intensity rarely lets up, the special effects are first-rate, and the birth of James Tiberius Kirk during his father’s final crisis gives the story a powerful emotional beginning. The film also honors loyalty, mercy, sacrifice, and the triumph of good over evil.
But this is not the STAR TREK older generations remember. Its alternate-universe reset creates a messier, more amoral world, where characters cheat, break rules, rebel, and engage in sexual behavior. The violence is intense, and the film includes a sex scene that is not consummated, foul language, serious alcohol use, and other troubling content.
If you are choosing for teenagers or adults, STAR TREK is worth seeing with discernment. For younger children or a family seeking the original series’ moral clarity, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESA vengeful Romulan captain travels back in time, changing the destiny of the Enterprise and everyone connected to it. James T. Kirk grows up without his father, becomes a rebellious young man, and eventually joins Star Fleet.
At the academy, Kirk clashes with the brilliant half-human, half-Vulcan Spock. When a crisis threatens Vulcan and the Federation, Kirk and the new Enterprise crew must face an apparently invincible enemy.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means STAR TREK is exciting, entertaining, and expertly made. The opening is emotionally gripping, and the story’s intensity continues almost to the end. The special effects are terrific, while the direction skillfully recalls the original characters and stories without simply copying them.
The sound effects and music are powerful. The film also builds toward an inspiring conclusion that honors the original STAR TREK series. Its main weakness is not craft but tone: this reboot is darker and morally messier than its namesake.
The Worldview
STAR TREK presents a strong moral worldview in which good triumphs, loyalty matters, mercy can be offered to an enemy, and heroes sacrifice themselves to save others. It also treats Kirk’s life as special and includes a positive reference to faith. These are meaningful strengths.
The film’s alternate universe, however, is less morally ordered than the original series. Cheating is defended and becomes part of the story. Rebellion, rule-breaking, sexual behavior, lying, and other immoral qualities receive room that the original STAR TREK would not have given them. Even Captain Nero has valid reasons for anger, though his rage and desire for revenge ultimately control him.
The review contrasts this darker universe with Gene Roddenberry’s original vision, shaped in part by his Christian upbringing. The first series presented good and evil more clearly and imagined the Enterprise as a family exploring space, rather than simply a military outfit. Later STAR TREK programs became more earthy, eclectic, and less focused on eternal biblical values.
Still, the film’s best moral insight is that people may need to give themselves for others. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong moral worldview with loyalty, self-sacrifice to save others, stopping genocide, and mercy is offered to one’s enemy, plus one positive reference to faith, but marred by pagan, rebellious and immoral behavior, including a problematic cheating incident that becomes part of other references to cheating in the story; 10 obscenities and four profanities; strong intense action violence includes serious fight scenes, including holding somebody down and beating them several times, fighting with swords and guns, sword stabbed through the chest, stepping on people’s hands while they hang on the abyss, mechanical violence, and a bug that eats into the brain dropped into a man’s mouth; one interspecies sex scene with the parties partially clothed and kissing, plus several sexual innuendoes and other kissing; brief upper male nudity, women in skimpy underwear; serious alcohol use in one scene, with drunkenness; no smoking or illegal drug use; and, genocide by villain, character is injected with a virus to smuggle him aboard a spaceship through the sick bay, cheating occurs and is defended, information withheld, and lying occurs.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film honors people who sacrifice themselves to save others. What does Jesus say is the greatest form of love, and where might sacrificial love appear in your life?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:3–4Kirk succeeds while breaking rules and cheating. When can confidence become self-reliance, and why does Scripture connect wisdom with honesty?
Proverbs 12:22 · James 3:13Nero’s grief becomes anger and revenge. What is the difference between bringing pain to God and allowing bitterness to rule you?
Psalm 55:22 · Ephesians 4:31–32Spock struggles with his human nature and his identity. How does Scripture describe the conflict between sinful desires and a life guided by the Spirit?
Galatians 5:16–17 · Romans 8:5–6The Final Word
STAR TREK is thrilling, polished, and morally serious in its best moments, even as its darker universe includes content and choices that call for discernment. Teenagers and adults can find much to enjoy and discuss. For younger viewers, consider our family-friendly picks. WORTH THE TRIP — AGES 13 AND UP.
