Everything Wrong with Star Trek Beyond

For you entertainment, here is an amusing nick picky take on Star Trek Beyond as it points out (accurately) a lot of plot and character holes in the film. It might not seem like the person is a fan but this is probably the most subtracted sins I have heard them give a film.

Star Trek Beyond Home Video Release Date

The official release date of Star Trek Beyond for home video has been announced. The movie will come out in the usual array of combo packs and special additions on November 1, 2016. You can also buy it early digitally on October 4 but considering the price of a digital copy is the same as the hard copy that comes with a digital code, you get more bang for your buck by waiting (and can sell off the hard copy to recoup some cost if so desire).

The special features include deleted scenes, gag reel, behind the scenes featurettes on aspects of the movie including the characters, sets, special effects and more. There is also a look back at 50 years of Trek along with the unfortunate passing of Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin. The full details can be found here.

To pre-order: Amazon Exclusive Set | Combo Pack | DVD | 4K UHD Combo

Star Trek Beyond Blu-ray USS Franklin Gift Set Pre-Order Available

Even though the very entertaining movie is still in theaters, the home video release of the movie is already available for pre-order. No details on the special features have been announced nor has the release date but if they are prepping this early then it will likely be in November or early December to take advantage of Christmas sales. The main reason you may want to look into the pre-order is the Quantum Mechanix mini-masters ship of the USS Franklin (the ship the crew use to escape the planet). Until recently I was only aware of QM for its crazy expensive but beautiful re-creations of Star Trek ships.

The Franklin is part of an Amazon exclusive $50 gift set that will include the ship and the 4K + 3D + Blu-ray combo. Deal wise its basically what the retail value of each would be if they were sold separately but personally I liked the mini-ship enough to make it worth pre-ordering and hope the price drops by the time its released. To pre-order: USS Franklin Gift Set | Blu-ray Combo

Star Trek Beyond Spoiler Free Review

It looks like third time is the charm. While Star Trek Beyond remains an action movie, for the first time it really feels like a Star Trek action movie. The emphasis on action is of no surprise considering the $185 million budget, its summer tent-pole status, and Justin Lin (Fast & Furious films) as director. What was a nice pleasant surprise was the solid amount of humor, characterization, and use of Star Trek elements with the action, something the previous films tried with hit and miss results.

The film opens with an amusing away mission moment that doesn't go as planned before the crew heads to the Star Base Yorktown whose realization is Star Trek technology taken to an extreme but beautiful degree (but not all together practical if assume space is dangerous) for some R&R. The crew is weary from three years exploring the final frontier and Kirk is seriously considering a desk job as he is tired of the "episodic" nature of his space tour. However a rescue mission intervenes and the crew goes into action. From there it hits the fans as the trailers have shown as the Enterprise is hit by an enemy unlike any encountered before in the franchise. From there its all action as the crew fight for survival against an unknown enemy.

As part of the fight, the bridge crew get separated and join together in teams not used before, even in the original series. This allowed for each character, and actor, to have a moment to shine on screen in effective ways. In the case of Bones and Spock, it means a few bro moments that will hopefully finally bring together the Star Trek trinity that the movies have hinted up but mostly avoided. Spock especially gets a few key moments, driven by the death of Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy). The big bad of the piece, Krall, is actually a pretty typical Star Trek villian. The motivations eventually get explained and the reason why is less "oh my!" and more "again?" but that is actually ok as he does fit in with most of Star Trek villains through the last 50 years.

Star Trek Beyond World Premiere at SDCC

Wednesday night the world premiere of Star Trek Beyond at the San Diego Comic-Con. Not entirely sure how it can be the world premiere considering premieres had already been held in multiple locations around the world but in any case it sounds like it was a grand event. The night started with some stand-up from Conan O'Brien before introducing the cast. A moment of silence for Anton Yelchin who died last month. Said Abrams, "As wonderful as this is to be here with all of you, and to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, there is something wrong tonight. There is something missing tonight, there is someone missing tonight. Anton Yelchin should be here. Anton's parents are here, Irina and Victor. We love their son and if I could ask everyone ot have a moment of silence for our dear friend, Anton."

After the silence the San Diego Symphony played a medley of Star Trek theme music as a light show and fireworks exploded over head. Later Zachary Quinto acknowledged the passing of Leonard Nimoy saying "I Just want to take a moment to honor him, to acknowledge him, to celebrate him and to love him. We all carry him with us in our heart, tonight." From there the crowd got to watch Star Trek Beyond on an outdoor IMAX screen (a first for a premiere) while a 90 piece orchastra performed the film score live (also a first).

More details and pictures from the premiere can be found here.

New Clip, Panoramic Trailer for Star Trek Beyond

Below are two new vids to support Star Trek Beyond. The first is a new clip that shows the opening of the attack that destroys the Enterprise. The second video is a "Panoramic Trailer" of the movie for theaters that support the format.

New Star Trek Beyond Featurette, Stills

Below is a new featurette about the character Jaylah (Sofia Boutella). If you like movie stills, you can find 50 images from the movie here.

New Sulu Revealed as Gay, Called Unfortunate By Original Sulu (Updated)

In an interview promoting Star Trek Beyond in Australia, John Cho revealed to the Herald Sun that his character of Sulu is gay. Cho said “I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicise one’s personal orientations". The previous movie revealed the character had a daughter in a brief scene so wouldn't be surprised if handled in a similar blink or you will miss it manner. The choice to make the character gay was made by Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin as a nod of respect to George Takai who originated the character of Sulu. However it seems the effort somewhat backfired as the actor was not pleased. Takai told The Hollywood Reporter, "I’m delighted that there’s a gay character. Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."

Takei first learned of Sulu's recent same-sex leanings last year, when Cho called him to reveal the big news. Takei tried to convince him to make a new character gay instead. "I told him, 'Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted.'" (Takei had enough negative experiences inside the Hollywood closet, he says, and strongly feels a character who came of age in the 23rd century would never find his way inside one.)

Rihanna's Sledgehammer Music Video for Star Trek Beyond

The music video for 'Rihanna - Sledgehammer (From The Motion Picture "Star Trek Beyond")' has been released. It shows zero footage from the movie, but does use the CGI swarm ships while opening and ending with some nice shots of the USS Enterprise. The lyrics for the song indicate, it was not written for or inspired by the movie with a two year old tweet from the artist suggesting its actually a track that didn't make the cut for her album Anti.

This is an interesting marketing ploy by Paramount and Rihanna. Paramount is hoping the single will (likely) be successful resulting in it promoting the film nearly every time its played while Rihanna (and her studio) gets paid by Paramount for doing the video, promoting the song and earns revenue from single sales while not having to pay out any money towards its production or release. We will find out the weekend of July 22 if this helps lead to a huge opening weekend for Star Trek Beyond.

See Star Trek Beyond Early at A IMAX Marathon

If you happen to live near one of the few participating AMC IMAX theaters, you can have a chance to watch the movie a day early. Technically two but they all release "early" now on Thursday around 8pm. AMC is doing a three movie marathon of the Abrams-verse movies with Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond on Wednesday, July 20 at 4:30om. Tickets will come with an event lanyard, poster, and Starfleet patch. Full details and buy tickets here. Below is the list of participating theaters of this posting.

Star Trek Beyond Soundtrack Teases Film Plot

I guess consider this your spoiler warning as technically the track titles (below) for the Star Trek Beyond Soundtrack could be spoilers for the film. I think it is worth the risk considering composer Michael Giacchino and company were clearly having fun when they came up with the pun filled titles. You can pre-order the soundtrack from Amazon now for release on July 29.

Track List:
1. Logo And Prosper (1:47)
2. Thank Your Lucky Star Date (2:15)
3. Night On The Yorktown (5:36)
4. The Dance Of The Nebula (2:22)
5. A Swarm Reception (2:30)
6. Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard (6:10)
7. Jaylah Damage (2:50)
8. In Artifacts As In Life (1:51)
9. Franklin, My Dear (2:50)
10. A Lesson In Vulcan Mineralogy (5:17)
11. MotorCycles Of Relief (3:17)
12. Mocking Jaylah (3:26)
13. Crash Decisions (3:16)
14. Krall-y Krall-y Oxen Free (4:23)
15. Shutdown Happens (4:35)
16. Cater-Krall In Zero G (2:17)
17. Par-tay For The Course (2:46)
18. Star Trek Main Theme (3:45)

Pine, Boutella and Giacchino Comment on Star Trek Beyond

Britain Sci-fi and fantasy magazine SPX's next cover story is about Star Trek Beyond. The issue doesn't come out until June 22 but TrekMovie.com has posted a few quotes they received. Below are the two key ones. In addition, Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino discusses the differences in score tone between the first two films and the third one.

Chris Pine on Star Trek today:

“You can’t make a cerebral Star Trek in 2016. It just wouldn’t work in today’s marketplace. You can hide things in there – Star Trek Into Darkness has crazy, really demanding questions and themes, but you have to hide it under the guise of wham-bam explosions and planets blowing up. It’s very, very tricky. The question that our movie poses is “Does the Federation mean anything?” And in a world where everybody’s trying to kill one another all of the time, that’s an important thing. Is working together important? Should we all go our separate ways? Does being united against something mean anything?”

Sofia Boutella about Jaylah:

“Jaylah is a survivor, and she is someone who thinks outside of the box. She’s an alien warrior, but her look is relatable to humans; her alien appearance in the film is not extreme. She has more in common with Kirk than anyone else in the film; they’re both very independent, and they’re both very honest and direct in their approach. She makes her own weapons.”

Michael Giacchino on Trek scores:

New Omaze Charity Gives Chance to Go to World Premiere of Star Trek Beyond

The Mission Continues charity has started a new campaign with Omaze to give detonators a chance to win a trip for two to the world premiere of Star Trek Beyond at the San Diego Comic-Con this July. Zachary Quinto provides an overview in the video below. You can donate at Omaze.com/Beyond.

Last Two Character Posters for Star Trek Beyond

The final two character posters have been posted for Star Trek Beyond with Kirk and Thrall.

Five New Character Posters for Star Trek

Below are new character posters for Chekov, Scotty, Spock, Sulu, and Uhura to promote Star Trek Beyond that is set for release on July 22.

Details from Star Trek Beyond Fan Event, On Set Articles, Simon Pegg Interview

The release of the second trailer for Star Trek Beyond means various media focused websites received the clearances to print articles from their Vancouver set visits while the movie was in production last year. In most cases the information is light since the whole point of the set visits is to literally sell the movie with a lot of cheerleading talk so what is said is rarely much different then what is said in interviews and the promotional talk show circuit. Below are the highlights and links to the full articles.

The full articles on io9.com and Collider. In addition Simon Pegg talked about working on the film with Collider. At last week's reveal of the trailer, Paramount also showed off a few scenes set early in the movie. If ok with spoilers you can find a description at TrekMovie.com. Last but not least, here is another poster for the movie whose look is designed to invoke the Star Trek: The Motion Picture poster.

Highlights

Star Trek Beyond World Premiere Date Set

Today at a fan event to premiere the new trailer for Star Trek Beyond, Paramount revealed that the movie will have its world premiere on July 20th at San Diego Comic-Con 2016. The red carpet event and premiere will be held at the Embarcadero Marina Park South in San Diego. The cast will be there with the film score being played by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Considering SDCC has become Hollywood's primary vehicle to promote upcoming Fall shows and next year's summer movies, this being chosen as an ideal time to premiere a movie seems like the next logical step.

Justin Lin Comments on Crew Focus, Fan Reception of First Trailer

In a new profile piece from Wired that looks at Justin Lin's career in Hollywood (an interesting read), the Star Trek Beyond director spoke about joining the rescue mission of the movie which was in disarray after something happened that has basically blacklisted then writer and director of Star Trek 3 Roberto Orci from all thinks Trek. He spoke about the film's focus on Enterprise crew and how he felt when fans attacked the first trailer (2nd one is an improvement).

Lin tells me about his Trek pitch. Instead of recycling old enemies (as in the controversial yet wildly successful Star Trek Into Darkness), he wanted to take away every familiar comfort of Starfleet, the bridge, and the recent films to “make the characters as raw as possible,” Lin says, “and build them back up.” He wanted to refocus the franchise on how the crew would react as underdogs, in an unfamiliar world, facing unknown enemies.

This is why Lin was hurt when some fans—including the original Sulu, George Takei, who voice-acted on Lin’s Bruce Lee mockumentary, Finishing the Game—bashed the 30-second Star Trek Beyond teaser that leaked a year ago. Some complained it looked like Fast & Furious in Space because Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk jumps a motorcycle (even though Pine also rode a motorcycle in Abrams’ 2009 reboot trailer). “George has always handled things with class,” Lin says. “He was a huge part of my life, so for him to swing a sucker punch, that hurt.” He expected snark. He just didn’t expect it to sting. “On Fast, I wasn’t a car guy,” Lin says. “I guess it hurt more because this is something that is a part of me.”

Pegg On Writing Trek and Meeting Director's Vision

In an interview with Collider, Star Trek writer Simon Pegg discussed how important doing Trek justice was to him while also incorporating the action elements that Jusin Lin (Fast and Furious films) is known for. Below are two key quotes, the rest can be found here.

PEGG: Being given the keys to the Star Trek universe was an extraordinary privilege. It was extremely important to me that we did it justice. I know Star Trek means a lot to a lot of different people. It means an enormous amount to some people. And at the same time, it should be something that everyone can enjoy as well, so you have to look at the means of writing a screenplay as well, which is an invitation to the un-inducted of the Federation Fan Club, and those who have been watching the show for fifty years and knowing it and loving every element of it. And also what’s available to us now and the state of cinema now, and the spectacle to bring people in. It was, “Let’s combine it. Let’s combine the philosophies and tenets of the Star Trek universe with bigger set pieces and exciting stuff. Let’s see Kirk and the guys doing stuff we haven’t seen them do before because we just literally haven’t been able to do that.” But that’s not at the expense of the other stuff. Star Trek is a very thoughtful story. It’s a very intelligent, hopeful projection of our own futures, and that’s something we have to hang on to.

PEGG: Justin had clear ideas about a few of the set pieces in the movie, and we would work with Justin to make sure the story tracked through those moments so if there was a big event, Doug and I would make sure we tracked every character in that event and make it track with Justin’s idea for the visual spectacle, which he is very good at. So once we hit all the dialogue and all the story beats, Justin would work with the pre-viz guys and the VFX guys and whoever else, the stunt teams, to bring it to life.

Memory Alpha Provided Assist In Star Trek Beyond Script

In an interview with Star Trek Beyond co-star and co-writer Simon Pegg, he spoke a little bit about the writing process with his co-writer Doug Jung. Specifically he commented on his use of a long time Star Trek wiki site to help during the scripting stage.

“We had the entirety of ‘Star Trek’ history at our disposal and it’s always there online. There’s an amazing Wikipedia online called Memory Alpha. It became Doug [Jung] and my resource and the place that we’d turn to whenever we wanted to know, ‘What kind of weapons does an NX vessel carry?’ Memory Alpha has it. We actually wrote to the Memory Alpha guys and got them to name a certain device in the movie. I sent them a letter saying, ‘Can you come up with this for me?’ In two hours, they came back with an entire etymological history of what the thing was. It’s beautiful. It’s fantastic to have that support network.”

Long time Trek fans have probably been aware of the depository of all things Star Trek called Memory Alpha that focuses on in canon continuity (as in TV and movies) of the universe. Its name is derived from the home of the Federation's central library that was introduced in The Original Series. Its partner in data is Memory Beta which focuses on the non-canon details like the novels, comics, and other licensed works. Basically you need a refresher on a character, planet, ship, race, you name it, between those two sites you answer can likely be found with a little digging. For example, the NX vessel reference is detailed on the website. If the class sounds familiar it is because NX-01 Enterprise is from the Star Trek: Enterprise series as the prototype ship for warp ships to use in exploration and defense that would be the standard design (later the letters NX would be used to denote an experimental ship design). The Constitution class NCC-1701 Enterprise from TOS is its successor (unofficially NCC means Navel Construction Contract, officially it means nothing).

Long story short, its nice to see Star Trek powers that be appreciate fans efforts (those mysterious minds that keep the Memory sites current). From a movie news perspective, it means nothing as likely it was for a Scotty ramble as he repairs something. The actor also commented on the new TV series saying:

“Star Trek has existed for 50 years in very different iterations. There are so many different points from the history of the Federation, from the very beginnings in ‘Enterprise’ to much later on with ‘Voyager’ and ‘Next Generation’. This is a story that will go on and on. It’s a continuing mission. It must have life on television as well as film. It started out as a TV show. It’s home was television. I’m overjoyed at that news and I can’t wait to see what they do.”