Major spoilers and silly opinions abound so don’t click to read more unless you’ve already seen the movie or have no intention of watching it.

• Thankfully, you don’t need to see Star Trek: Into Darkness in order to understand what Beyond is about. They’re not super standalone films, but you can kind of squeeze by any references to the second film and Benedict Cumberkhan.
• That being said, I liked that clearly there was character growth between the films and the crew is stronger because of it.
• There were a ton of clichés about unity and strength. It was very well… Star Trek-y, that’s for sure.
• I love Jayla. She is my daughter. I would legit pay to see a Starfleet Academy film (a sort of sci-fi buddy comedy) where Jayla takes Kirk’s words to heart and proceeds to be a tech-savvy terror on her way to being the best engineer that the federation has ever seen.
• Chekov is my son. My little Russian son. Every time he was on screen I started tearing up because I love his character so much and Anton Yelchin was a true treasure to the world. I don’t think the series – or the world – will be the same without him. And honestly, I didn’t think about how much his acting meant to me and I didn’t realize how hard it would hit me until I saw him on screen and I just started sniffling.
• Beyond Is really darkly lit. Most of the scenes take place: in the vacuum of space, at night, or underground. So it’s really hard to see what’s going on. I saw it twice (in 3D the first time and standard the second) and there are still things I didn’t see because it was almost pitch black on screen.
• The Uhura/Spock relationship takes a bit of a beating and I’m not looking forward to seeing the diehard Spirk shippers showing their asses over their beginning interactions or the reason for the rocky relationship road (even though the reasoning legit knocks Kirk all the way out of the running for love interest, mind you). I liked how the movie got them back on track and showed them relating to one another.
• Speaking of Uhura: They gave my girl more to do. I’m so happy! She got to kick so much ass and be so pretty. I’m actually definitely thinking about doing an Uhura cosplay in the distant future because of this movie.
• Also: John Cho is bae. Like have y’all seen the eyebrow lift thing he does? That is mind-meltingly hot for so many freaking reasons? GEEZ.
• Okay, so I’m still a bit grouchy that Sulu couldn’t kiss his husband onscreen, but it’s still VERY clear that he and Ben are married and have a deep love for each other and their daughter. It’s a small step for visibility but I know that there are little queer kids out there who’ll see Sulu embrace his husband and their daughter and feel hope for their future.
• Why is Zachary Quinto’s nose so cute?
• Loved the Spock/Bones banter. I ship them so hard right now, to be honest.
• Idris Elba was wasted in this movie. Straight up. How are you going to cast my husband and then hide his face behind CGI and prosthetics for 99% of the movie before they freaking kill him? Seriously. Lowkey, I wish that Idris hadn’t been a villain and could have been a different character so he wasn’t unrecognizable for most of the movie.
• Really great fight scenes and tons of emotion. It was a bit soppy at parts, but it worked so well that I can’t complain seriously.
• The last lines of the film where the crew says the thing  will make you cry. I mean… it made me cry both times so maybe I’m a crybaby, but whatever… It was moving.
• Will the new Trek series tie into the film universe? Also: did any news about that series come out of ComicCon?

All in all, I loved Star Trek: Beyond.