Star Trek Beyond

Essential among these three, and the best of them. Justin Lin took over and Simon Pegg co-wrote it, and between them they produced the only Kelvin film that feels like the television series: a ship on a long voyage, a crew who are tired of each other in a comfortable way, a distress call, and an away mission that goes wrong.

The structure is its best idea. The ship is destroyed early and the crew are scattered across a planet in pairs, which forces combinations the previous two films never used. Spock and McCoy stuck together, bickering, with one of them injured, is the pairing the whole franchise was built on and the first time these two actors get to play it.

It also has an argument underneath it. Krall's case is that the Federation's long peace has made it soft and that struggle is what makes a species, and the film gives him a backstory that makes the grievance comprehensible before answering it. That is closer to what Star Trek does than either of the preceding films attempted.

The weak points are a third act that resolves on a motorcycle and a radio signal, and an antagonist whose identity is held back longer than it is worth. The film was dedicated to Anton Yelchin, who died shortly before release, and Leonard Nimoy, who had died the previous year, and it handles the second of those within the story with real care.