But it’s the special effects I want to talk about. Because for the past decade or so, more and more the effects in big films have been utilised as some kind of willy-waving exercise, with the emphasis on putting something impressive in the trailer. Yet too many times, when you got to the film itself, they stood out like a sore thumb, as integral to the story as a fridge is to the middle of a football field.

The key offender in recent times has, for my money, been Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What was particularly disappointing about that film was that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were making all the right noises in the build up to the film, that it wouldn’t be effects driven. But they were leading us a merry dance. We had computerised snakes, computerised bugs, we had computerised fridges flying through computerised explosions. And that ending. Everywhere you looked in the midst of the latest addition to an action franchise whose best moments were recorded via a camera lens, there was a special effect, often for no clear purpose.

It’s not alone, either. Just how many times have we had effects for the sake of effects in past summers? I’m not averse to putting some computerised spectacular on the screen, but numerous times, for instance, during the last Pirates of the Caribbean film I just thought they were showing off (and I do concede there were some terrific sequences in there, too). Transformers? It looked terrific, granted, but the effects were in charge there, and it didn’t help the film.

Also, there’s the problem that when a film is reliant on a special effect, it has a habit of going badly wrong. The back end of I Am Legend was significantly diluted by some bizarre computer creations running amok, the arrival of the Scorpion King at the end of The Mummy Returns induced titters when I saw it, and Martin has listed several other candidates that I could happily chunter about right here .

The trick to Star Trek, for me, was that it stayed focused, and chose carefully. Appreciating that JJ Abrams had a sizeable budget at his disposal, there was still little doubt in my mind that it was all up there on screen as I walked out at the end. The last time I think I’d seen such concentrated focus on wringing the most out of an effects budget for the benefit of the film itself was with Danny Boyle’s underrated Sunshine, and I long now for other blockbuster directors to pick up some of the lessons that Star Trek has clearly demonstrated.