Another good sign? Beyond did something a couple times that Star Trek, as much as I'm a longtime fan of it, doesn't usually make me do: laugh out loud. Or as loud as I could with my voice recovering from a loud party Friday night. The point is, it made me want to laugh. Which helps, as the film is a surprisingly emotional roller coaster for me, and the laughs were a good release after some very tough-to-watch moments, especially about a quarter of the way into the film. Not tough for "bad moviemaking" reasons, tough for "events I really don't want to happen, happen" reasons.
I won't spoil Star Trek Beyond, so, other general thoughts: Beyond's story hasn't really been told in a Star Trek film before, whereas STID at its core is a retread of The Undiscovered Country (shadowy Starfleet forces secretly want war, our heroes stop them); it stays entirely in deep space, which only one other Star Trek film has done (1998's Insurrection*); it lets its crew have relationships! Yay! (Friendship and love.) There's physical comedy that's light and that doesn't make me cringe, unlike Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. I keep thinking back on moments from this film and smiling. And whoa, it's a good-looking movie. I don't think watching in 3-D would add much, but keep in mind I try not to go to 3-D movies unless they're made as 3-D movies.
It does feel like notable chunks of the film were cut; parts seem missing, though not fatally so. I would definitely be interested in seeing a longer version of this, if one exists. I do like that a certain key detail seems at first to be a biiiiiiiiit of an overly-convenient coincidence but gets explained better, later. (This wouldn't have been fatal, either; the 2009 Star Trek has several such coincidences, and I still really like that film.)
Star Trek Beyond is solid, and makes me feel good about Star Trek. That's important to me.
* The other 11 films have either an Earth-focused plot (giant cloud/ giant probe/ super weapon headed toward Earth! Oh no!) or significant scenes on Earth. I don't think Insurrection is all that good, but I hope the Star Trek films can stretch away from Earth more often.
