The Kelvin Star Trek films as a whole were anything but a failure

The Kelvin Era of Star Trek films was not a failure.

It’s a bit shocking I, of all people, have to say this but the Kelvin era of Star Trek films was not a failure. For those who are new to the timeline, the Kelvin timeline films are the Chris Pine-led films that go from Star Trek 2009, to Into Darkness and finally Beyond. Those three films represent the current trio of Kelvin-era Star Trek films.

And the three films were all successful to some degree. Star Trek 2009 earned money and critical reviews, Into Darkness is the highest-grossing Star Trek film of all time and Beyond has a strong cult following. Each film is seen differently from one another and fans will have their favorite among the three, but it’s disingenuous to say the films failed.

It’s even further untrue to say they failed because of the depiction of the U.S.S. Enterprise, as one CBR writer has claimed.

Star Trek doesn’t need the Enterprise to make good stories

The author of the CBR article cites some flimsy reasons for what constitutes good Trek and it all seemingly involves the Enterprise. One of the arguments used is that  Trek V was bad, and it was the only film where the Enterprise wasn’t featured. No, that’s not why people hate Trek V. They hate  Trek V because they put God in the center of the universe and named him after Sean Connery.

The lack of the Enterprise had nothing to do with the lack of quality. Further proof of that statement involves Trek IV: The Voyage Home, often cited as the third or fourth-best Trek film. A film that didn’t feature the Enterprise hardly at all.

So clearly, the Enterprise is not the reason a show or film is good or bad. So, wrongly saying, that the Kelvin Trek films failed because of how they used the Enterprise is just flat-out incorrect. Trek has, and will always be about, the connection of the crew within the ship. The ship is a nice set piece and does a great job of highlighting the uniqueness of each show and film, but the ship is not the point of the story.