When did they stop going boldly?

Anton Yelchin, Christopher Pine & John Cho (l-r)

The first question that occurs with Star Trek Beyond is ‘beyond what exactly’? It’s one of those meaningless box-ticky titles that doubtless survived the rigours of the marketing focus group better than the others. But it is indicative of a certain generic quality to this film; it’s entertaining enough but it is also instantly forgettable.

This is the third outing in the rebooted Star Trek film franchise following on from the ten films in the first two franchises. It’s inevitable that there is a certain same-ishness about them by now which is why this looks more like a more expensive TV episode than anything else.

This time Christopher Pine’s Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock are pondering big questions. Before they can reach any answers there is the inevitable crisis that only the Enterprise can deal with – of which more later. They set sail to encounter yet another wannabe galactic conqueror, Krall who takes the crew prisoner which means Kirk and his away team have to rescue them.

Star Trek is often described as ‘Wagon Train in Space’ but I’ve always seen it as ‘Hornblower in Space’ and this plot could be lifted wholesale and dropped into the Napoleonic Wars without missing a beat.

Everything that Star Trek fans would expect to find is here although happily without the rampant sexism of Into Darkness. But as I said earlier it is all a little formulaic, there is very little imagination in a franchise whose mission statement is ‘to boldly go’. They have taken science fiction and turned it into adventure fiction; entertaining but unremarkable.

The film looks spectacular, up to a point. The Starfleet base is a wonder of CGI design, like an Escher drawing in zero gravity. But since you can’t actually imagine it functioning successfully, or anyone living on it, it is something of an empty spectacle.

The same applies to the action sequences. Fast and Furious director Justin Lin is a smart choice to reboot things here and he knows his way around a chase scene. The sequence with Kirk on a motorbike – don’t ask! – saving the day on a far off planet is excellent.

However unlike Fast and Furious where, for the most part, it’s real drivers in real vehicles, the big battles here are CGI-fests which again makes it uninvolving. The simple fact of the matter is that you don’t really care because you know how it will turn out.

Wrath of Khan is probably the best of the Star Trek films largely because Khan was a terrific villain, one you feared might actually win and did achieve a victory of sorts. Krall, like all the others, is just a plot device to allow the Enterprise to save the day.

Incidentally, as I hinted earlier, if the Enterprise is the only ship that can navigate an impassable nebula to save the day, how come everyone who wants – including a reconstituted heap of junk – can navigate the nebula at the end of the film.

It’s an issue but one which, like the rest of the movie, won’t give you more than a moment’s thought.