Star Trek Into Darkness

OK then JJ; franchise successfully rebooted, now it's time for the difficult second album. And what a challenge that is when the franchise is as big as Star Trek. 47 years, 726 TV episodes, 11 previous films and a cult following of millions just add up to the scale of the task at hand, not least trying to top the rebooted prequel itself. And so, with that level of pressure from all fronts, it would have been easy to understand if Abrams and his team had maybe dropped one or two of the more contentious balls they were carrying with this movie. Yet the result of all those heightened expectations is actually a beautiful hybrid movie, able to satisfy even the most devout Trekkie, yet still appeal to Starfleet newbies. Not a mean feat.

With JJ. Abrams at the helm again, it should really be no surprise that the action sequences in this film come thick and fast. The absolute pleasure is that every single one of them is absolutely sterling (rather elegantly defined as 'thoroughly excellent'), and coupled in all instances by some truly top-notch visual effects. The cast once again turn in some incredibly worthy performances, with particular mention of course going to Benedict Cumberbatch's exquisitely understated villain.

You'd be surprised just how much 23rd century technology is based on present day cow birthing techniques.

Holding fast to the spoiler-free mantra of TFC, I'm not about to go and divulge vast swathes of story secrets, but suffice to say, the alternate timeline started in the 2009 reboot does give the team scope for some rather jolting reimaginings of storylines from the Star Trek back catalogue (like the previous Vulcan storyline), which are most certainly used to devastating effect.

With the scale of success Abrams is seeing within the Star Trek universe, his appointment as the head of the project to bring back the next biggest science fiction franchise comes as very little surprise. Unfortunately, with Star Wars (Episode VII) now occupying the top spot on his ever-lengthening priority list, it remains to be seen whether the third story will wait, or if the franchise will continue under a new commander in chief. One thing is for sure though, regardless of when it comes; as with any trilogy, now that the temperamental middle child is in the bag, the stakes are even higher to make a hit of the perennially tricky final album.