Star Trek Beyond is the third installment in the rebooted series, written by Doug Jung (Deep Blue) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead). Pegg also plays Montgomery Scott, the engineering chief better known as “Scotty”.

Beyond is a two-hour thrill ride, doing a good job of capturing both the visual aspects and writing style that Star Trek is known for.

From an aesthetic viewpoint, the rebooted Star Trek series is a goldmine, and the latest installment is no exception.  With ethereal computer generated star-scapes, stunning nebulas, brilliantly organized color schemes, and an environmentally diverse setting.  Especially while aboard the Enterprise, lens flares were omnipresent, effectively giving the film a real “23^rd Century” feel.

Beyond sees the cast of its two preceding films facing a new form of danger. When the Enterprise rescues the captain of an alien ship, they embark on a journey to save the rest of her crew. However, not all is what it would seem.

The alien captain leads the crew to an unfamiliar planet, where they find a distinct lacking of any ship in need of rescuing.  A lacking, that is, until they are suddenly attacked by a swarm of small, fast ships which quickly make piecemeal of the beloved Enterprise.  Some of the crew members manage to escape to the planet’s surface via escape pod, while the rest are left to their attackers.

Having made it to the planet’s surface more or less unharmed, Chekov, Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty struggle to locate one another. Scotty quickly encounters the survivor of an alien ship which met a fate akin to that of their own. Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) helps Scotty reunite with his crewmates, and the group goes on to stage a rescue of the Enterprise crew, who had been captured by Krall (Idris Elba).

While Beyond may be a sci-fi blockbuster, it is not without deeper meaning; the very premise that the film is centered around what it means to be human.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Anton Yelchin, who played navigator Pavel Chekov in the current series.  Yelchin was killed in a car accident this June.

Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, reprised his role in the previous two films, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, as Spock from an alternate future, which was based upon the original television series.  However, Nimoy died in the late February of last year, and the original Spock was respectfully retired in Beyond.

Overall, Star Trek Beyond is a visually rich film that draws a strong influence from the original series, and is easily the best out of the three reboots.