The first trailer for Star Trek Beyond revealed that the USS Enterprise — Captain Kirk's iconic starship — gets destroyed. It's the type of plot development that you might think would be a somber, seminal moment in Trek history, but part of what makes Beyond so fun is that the destruction of the Enterprise is not, actually, that big a deal.
Following 2009's successful rebooted origin story that navigated complicated alternate timelines and a dreadful sequel that's too beholden to the legacy of Trek's most iconic villain to have time to be good or coherent in its own right, Star Trek Beyond succeeds because of how low-key it is. Rather than try to be the next epic chapter of a saga worthy of the big screen, Beyond feels more like a really good episode of Star Trek. It's the gang going on another adventure, and it turns out you don't need much more than that.
