Star Trek Beyond

On a routine search-and-rescue mission into uncharted space, the Enterprise is attacked by thousands of alien crafts and destroyed, its crew decimated and the survivors dispersed on the surface of an unfamiliar and hostile planet. The quality of the rebooted franchise drops off sharply this third time around, but it’s strong enough to please the fans. Simon Pegg and Doug Jung’s script is affectionate, often amusing, but dramatically muddled. J.J. Abrams might have fixed that, but Justin Lin is the director here, and story and character are not his strong suit. Visual effects are state of the art for 1985, and Stephen F. Windon’s cinematography is murky, which the 3-D glasses only make worse. On the plus side, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and the rest (including Pegg) do their usual yeoman work.