Justin Lin defends first Star Trek Beyond trailer

The first trailer for that other 'Star' film Star Trek Beyond landed online earlier this week, and its safe to say that the reaction was mixed. While there was plenty of fun humour on display, there were a couple of indications that the highly anticipated 2016 blockbuster would be a 'Star Trek meets The Fast & the Furious' mashup, and there were plenty of fans who voiced their disapproval.

Director Justin Lin understands where those fans are coming from. Speaking to SlashFilm, he said: "When I saw the teaser, I’m like ‘Aw, s**t. You really have to put the motorcycle in there?’ So I get it, I get it, I get it.

"There were other versions [of the trailer] that were much more traditional and I can see where maybe the hardcore fans could probably see that as, 'Oh'," Lin continued. "But with trailers you’re putting a two-hour movie into a minute and a half, and the one thing I wanted to make sure is that it hopefully represents that we are trying to be bold and take risks; whether we are successful or not, I don’t know."

Article continues below

Lin's comments speak to the challenges of how best to cut a trailer; it is only a 90 second peek into a two hour movie, and sometimes it's difficult to get the tone of the film across in so short a time. Here's hoping the hard core trekkies will be more convinced upon the release of more marketing materials as the film gets closer to release.

Directed by Justin Lin and starring Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, Star Trek Beyond warps into UK and US cinemas on July 22, 2016.

Images: Paramount

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.