In principle, it's hard to dislike "Star Trek." Each time the crew of the USS Enterprise venture into the great beyond, broadcasting their mantra of peace and intergalactic harmony, it's a riposte to the iffy politics advocated by other movie franchises: they're the United Nations to Marvel and DC's quasi-fascist Ubermensch.
Times have changed since Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi saga first debuted in the 1960s. In this latest incarnation, which began with J.J. Abrams' energetic reboot in 2009, the morality lessons of old have been sidelined in favor of relentless action, and it's less clear if the crew are still setting their phasers to stun.
In "Star Trek Beyond," Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his comrades are confronted with a foe who violently rejects the United Federation of Planets and its all-embracing humanism. Alien warlord Krall (Idris Elba, lost beneath heavy prosthetic makeup and a thick accent) espouses a doctrine more in line with the Spartan soldiers of "300."