Star Trek Beyond **SPOILERS FROM POST 566 ONWARD**

I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again: Star Trek (2009) is a damn near masterpiece of blockbuster filmmaking. I say that wholly aware of its flaws: its incredibly loose internal logic and its thematic shallowness foremost among them. But it's a dazzling feat of showy spectacle filmmaking. The camera is instilled with infectious energy, audaciously swooping and swinging and tracking, buzzing with life and enthusiasm so sadly absent in many of its big budget contemporaries.

Abrams and his design team have an impeccable eye for colour, clarity and lighting (excess lens flair a slightly regrettable consequence of otherwise impeccable cinematography) - it's perhaps the most visually articulate blockbuster of recent times (Gravity aside), and a very promising precursor to The Force Awakens. And that goddamn soundtrack: Giachinno's work basically the most rousing slice of unashamedly grandiose orchestration to grace a blockbuster since sometime around the early 1990s (Duel of the Fates aside). The cast throw themselves at the roles: they're tasked with following up some of the most iconic performances in TV history, and none of them give less than total commitment to such a thankless challenge.

Even its inherent dumbness is in some perverse way ultimately an asset - the plot, having pissed away any semblance of logic at an early juncture, moves at a gloriously propulsive pace, while the relationships between characters are developed with admirable, no-nonsense simplicity. There's nonsense elsewhere, yes, but you know I was more than happy to just go along with the space operatics.

I'm no Trekkie, truth be told, and the Internet's vitriolic response to the film (and its lesser but still thoroughly entertaining successor) has long since taught me I'm in something of a minority here. That said, grander thematic concerns aside, I'd also propose its vivid primary colours and giddy sense of adventure make it a more loving tribute to the endearingly cheesy and camp original series than many give it credit for. It's big, stupid and loud, but it's one of the exceptional cases when IMO that works.