New 'Star Trek Beyond' Trailer Takes On A New Tone

If you like serious, you're going to love the new Star Trek Beyond trailer which takes a wildly different tonality to December's first Star Trek Beyond trailer. While December's trailer was notable for its wacky, witty tonality, which opened on Scotty (played by comedian Simon Pegg, who also penned the script) asking about the Beastie Boys' song playing in the background and filled its screen-time with one-liners, this trailer is all about establishing the solemnity of the story.

Back when the first Star Trek Beyond trailer dropped in December, what was most notable was the fans' less than enthused response. YouTube comments like Caleb Canagasingham's "I don't like this new change too much to be honest. Hopefully this is an misleading teaser, and the movie is much more than the teaser lets on" were typical of the average reaction to the trailer from fans, who had hoped that the movie would mark a return to a more serious treatment of the franchise than the last movie, Star Trek Into Darkness, had delivered. But the new trailer clearly reassures fans that the stakes are high enough to satisfy serious fans of the franchise:

When the first trailer dropped in December, even the film's screenwriter and star Simon Pegg conceded in an interview with HeyUGuys: "I didn't love it. I know there’s a lot more to the film." Clearly the second trailer is somewhat of a do-over for the first trailer. It's worlds away from the first trailer in tonality, and it remedies the problems the first poses: the characters are able to show vastly more emotional depth, the plot looks more engaging and less haphazardly concocted. Most importantly, it emphasises just how much the characters have to lose. They're forced for the first time to leave their protective metal womb: the ship and to forge their own path across an alien planet.

While I personally enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek vibes of the first trailer, the second is clearly superior from a dramatic perspective: I watched the whole thing with my heart in my throat, anxious about what all this could mean for the characters. If I was this engaged after just 90 seconds of footage, I can't wait to watch the film as a whole. Maybe these two trailers are a good thing: Lin's reached two wildly different audiences, both those drawn to humor, and those attracted to drama. Here's hoping both audiences find something to be excited about when watching the Star Trek Beyond film this summer.

Images: Paramount Pictures