STAR TREK BEYOND Blu-ray/DVD Release Date, Extra Features And Cover Art Revealed

Into Darkness ripped off the best scenes from Wrath of Khan and exploited them for no purpose other than to be an "homage", but Beyond does the same thing, only more subtle. That scene in the bar is a retread of this one (the second one with McCoy):



And just like Into Darkness, the scene serves no larger purpose. In Wrath of Khan, these scenes meant something, they were building to something. Kirk is struggling with the reality of growing older. That his adventures are over. That the wisdom and responsibility that comes with his lifetime of adventuring has taken away the brashness of youth. The mistakes of inexperience. The thrill of the unknown. And the movie presents him with three things:

1) David, his son he never knew. A living embodiment of those wasted years and missed opportunities.

2) Khan, an enemy he'd thought vanquished. The resurrection of one of Kirk's mistakes from his youth.

3) Genesis, a weapon that can destroy all life on a world by literally remaking it into a new, youthful one. The staid lifeless drudgery of old age wiped clean with the exuberance of youth.

All three factor into Kirk's original state, and in the end, Kirk gets his original wish. He reunites with David, fights Khan, and evades the Genesis weapon, but he does it by reckoning with the consequences of his past mistakes, and making new ones, by incorporating the wisdom of his experience, but also by gaining new experiences. We see, for the first time, Kirk grieve.



It's not all that complex, but it is relentlessly on theme. Wrath of Khan is an old man recapturing the follies of youth. The adventure, yes, but the tragedy, too. The pain of a new experience, a new wound, a new hurt. Those are what Kirk had lost. And this movie gives them to him, and they come at a cost.

Beyond didn't do anything with that drinking scene. Didn't do anything with any of the undertones of a man stranded with his crew trying to survive (something Krall and Kirk have in common). It was just "doomsday device, bad guy, he's got a backstory, dirtbikes, try to stop him".

Pfeauh...