

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

2016’s summer of so-so cinema is finally invigorated with the arrival of this absolutely barnstorming entry in the rebooted Star Trek universe, as J.J. Abrams hands over the bridge to Fast & Furious alumnus Justin Lin. Soon after the Enterprise crew respond to a plea for help in uncharted space, they find themselves shipwrecked on a desolate world. Stranded, scattered and on the run from the murderous Krall (Idris Elba), Kirk, Spock and co. must forge alliances with fellow maroon Jaylah (Kingsman’s Sofia Boutella) to prevent the pebble-faced villain from retrieving an alien artefact of immense power.





That’s not so much a setup than the essence of Star Trek Beyond: it’s an episode of the original series writ large, where teamwork and problem-solving trumps the point-and-shoot method that Abrams’ preceding films were more than occasionally guilty of. As if tonal allusions to the TV show weren’t enough, we also get the classic distress call setup, a rocky planet environment likely filmed in a quarry and many scenes of Kirk punching alien baddies in the face. Any state-of-the-art, whizz-bang special effects work is placed at either end of the picture, to serve as bookends for the main narrative thrust. When the shooting starts up again in the gob-smacking finale, the ship-to-ship spectacle is outrageously entertaining, and I doubt we’ll find a more brilliantly grin-inducing use of music in a blockbuster this year. Michael Giacchino’s score, alternately twinkly and brash, is as magical as ever, and a consistent visual aesthetic is maintained by cinematographer Stephen Windon evoking the swooping style of previous DoP Dan Mindel, but with minimal smearing of lens flares.





With the Kirk and Spock relationship fleshed out considerably in Trek and Into Darkness, Beyond focuses on the unity of the crew as a whole, something that proves Lin’s experience with the latter-day, family-centric Fast movies indispensable. We get to see more interaction between Kirk and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin is frantically engaging as he has ever been), Uhura and Sulu are placed shoulder-to-shoulder, whilst Spock and Bones are left alone together for a large chunk of the narrative, allowing for some lovely old-married-couple bickering: Quinto and Urban really have their respective characters down to a tee. Simon Pegg (as co-writer this time around) gives Scotty an awful lot more to do, but when the curmudgeonly engineer’s bemused interactions with Boutella’s no-nonsense Jaylah (a new female Trek character not introduced as a love interest, whatever next?) are so endearing, there’s little room for complaint.





Though, while we’re on the subject, I do have a niggle or two: for all its visual invention (the orb city of Yorktown is easily the best spaceward treat for the eyes since Gravity) and vigour, the finale stretches on past breaking point, while Krall’s motivations are revealed far too late to hold any true significance: his insistance on tearing the crew apart to demonstrate their reliance on unity was far more involving than his eventual justification for destruction.





However, a film that can have me smiling ear-to-ear from start-to-finish just by re-introducing characters, spaceships, musical cues and even sound effects that I genuinely love is so difficult to dislike. Sure, I may be blinded by nostalgia (bizarre, considering that only five years ago I wouldn’t touch Trek with a ten foot pole), but in a summer blockbuster season that has so consistently failed to deliver thrills of any kind, nostalgic or otherwise, I’ll be boldly going back to this one. Thataway!