Star Trek Beyond is the third installment in a franchise now devoted to violently resolving the Federation’s customer complaints and disgruntled former employees who hate their retirement packages. Star Trek Beyond’s villain is a deep space vampire who is really into S&M and has Idris Elba’s voice. Star Trek Beyond is an effective and well-written sci-fi action flick. Every seemingly casual comment becomes excessively important and moves the story forward. What Star Trek Beyond did not accomplish is creating a lasting emotional impression. Kirk and Spock are experiencing separate midlife crises after being bored with years of interstellar travel (and apparently are still not very good at their mission if the opening scenes are any indication), but they are quickly reinvigorated after repeatedly almost dying in Star Trek Beyond. The most poignant moment in Star Trek Beyond is devoted to a Leonard Nimoy tribute. The best part of Star Trek Beyond is the introduction of Khaleesi, I mean Jaylah, who has better taste in music than Kirk and is played by the same actress who had leg blades in Kingsmen. There is one cringe worthy battle scene that felt like it was made by an old man who thought it would be hip, and the kids would enjoy it, but just felt awkward and hilariously absurd. If you are a completist, then check out Star Trek Beyond, but you won’t think about it for more than a few seconds after leaving the theater. The Star Trek franchise went from being the innovative standard bearer to derivative.