With J.J. Abrams off dealing with those little “Star Wars” movies, Paramount Pictures needed somebody new to come guide their beloved “Star Trek” franchise. They hired Justin Lin, the director most known for the “Fast and the Furious” movies. It was a bold choice, considering how much the studio has invested in “Star Trek,” but one that proved to be right on the money as Lin’s movie brings some much needed energy and to the franchise.

Diehard fanboys will still find plenty to criticize, but audiences who are just looking for a big summer movie should get a kick out of “Star Trek Beyond.”

This latest adventure follows the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they are out exploring the galaxy. Aside from some intra-crew drama, things are going well enough for Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg) and the rest of the crew. The problem comes when the ship is attacked by a malevolent alien named Krall (Idris Elba).

The ship is destroyed and small groups of the crew left stranded on a planet below. Scotty teams up with a resourceful alien named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) to figure a way out of their predicament, which leads to plenty of fist fights, space battles and other action sequences where lots of stuff is blown up spectacularly in service to a good old PG-13 summer blockbuster.

Lin has always been good at movies that feature large ensembles, and this is clearly evident in “Beyond,” which gives us all of the essential movie elements and still finds time to focus on the bickering between Spock and Bones, the romance between Spock and Uhura and Captain Kirk’s self-doubts.

We also get a quick glimpse into the home life of Mr. Sulu (John Cho) which is stirring up some controversy around the revelation that Sulu is gay. The family life scenes are so incidental to the story that it really shouldn’t cause any problems for audiences who just want to see a fun space adventure.

On the other hand, the untimely death of Anton Yelchin, who plays Mr. Chekov does evince a note of sadness that pulls you out of the story, although there’s not really anything that could have been done about that.

All things considered, this is a superb third installment in the series reboot. The cast gells effortlessly, the new characters are interesting, but not so much so that they overshadow the series regulars, and the action sequences are visually arresting and viscerally thrilling.

No offense meant to J.J. Abrams, who did a great job rebooting this franchise, but Lin’s direction is so good that I hope he’ll be there to guide us for many future adventures past “Star Trek Beyond.”

Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in “The Port Arthur News” and seen weekly on KFDM and KBTV. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@sbgtv.com.com.