5. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

The most recently released Star Trek film is also one of the most divisive. The subterfuge surrounding the role played by Benedict Cumberbatch during production was ridiculous and his eventual reveal as Khan was full of nonsensical self-importance; the audience know exactly who Khan is, but Kirk and Spock have no clue, robbing the moment of any impact. A crippled Enterprise, drifting from the moon to earth in seconds thanks only to the pull of Earth’s gravity was also pretty dumb for a franchise that used to pride itself on using real science. Still, I couldn’t help but like the film.

The rest of the crew gets much more to do this time around, Sulu gets a his chance in “the big chair”, Scotty has an adventure and the sadly departed Anton Yelchin takes over engineering for a while. I could have done without the bickering between Uhura and Spock though. Like its inspiration The Wrath Of Khan, Into Darkness explores Kirk’s ability to deal with his own personal Kobayashi Maru, the no-win situation he can’t get out using his charm and wit.

As for THAT climax, I know a lot of people hated it but from the moment Scotty told Spock “You’d better get down here” I was engrossed by Into Darkness’s re-staging of the end of ‘Khan with the roles of Kirk and Spock reversed. The emotional punch was diluted somewhat by the resurrection of Kirk thanks to Khan’s magic blood (does this mean no one dies in Star Trek anymore?) but this was still a fantastically enjoyable adventure.