Star Trek Beyond: A first look at Justin Lin's action adventure

Star Trek Beyond opens in cinemas this Friday and early reviews suggest it is an action-filled crowd-pleaser, even if some die-hard fans are left wanting more.

Fast & Furious director Justin Lin's take on the sci-fi franchise, which was rebooted in 2009 by JJ Abrams, stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, with a script co-written by British actor Simon Pegg.

A new trailer, the fourth so far, gives Star Trek fans the most detailed look at the film so far.

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In fact, it shows "a bit too much from Star Trek Beyond, especially from its third act", says Jack Giroux on Slash Film. He warns fans "there are a few shots and moments that would probably be best to experience for the first time in a theatre this weekend".

Paramount is keen to draw in new viewers beyond existing Star Trek fans, notes Giroux, who says the "the trailers have leaned heavily on the action".

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Lin's Fast & Furious background certainly shows in "the most action-oriented Trek of them all", says Pete Hammond in Deadline Hollywood. But he isn't sure this "Star Trek for shorter attention spans will please die-hard fans as much as your average Joe Popcorn, who is out looking for carnage".

But thanks to Pegg and Doug Jung's script, "the humour and philosophical spin" that has marked the best of these films survives intact, adds Hammond, "even if the emphasis is more effects-driven with less food for thought".

Owen Gleiberman in Variety agrees Lin has certainly brought "bravura action energy and a certain nostalgic flair to the Star Trek series".

The director is a "virtuoso at making vehicles fly through space", he says, and his Star Trek has "a few of the most spectacular set pieces ever seen in the series".

In other respects, Trek Beyond is a "sturdily built movie that gets the job done, and brings the likeable retro vibe". It's a "diverting place holder" and doesn't reinvent the wheel as Abrams did so brilliantly.

It "doesn't have the same vision of Abrams's films", argues Brian Truitt in USA Today. "Yet it does recapture the exploration motif plus the emotional and social underpinnings of Star Trek past."

This galactic adventure might be an uneven one, he adds, but the combination of gravitas, Pegg's humour and some old-school Trek themes makes Beyond an "entertaining trip to the final frontier".