Star Trek

Rumors of the death of the Star Trek franchise have been grossly exaggerated. Shrewdly rebooted, revved-up and reenergized by director JJ Abrams, the new Star Trek is fast, action-packed, visually dazzling and entertaining from start to finish.

Roberto Orci and Alec Kurtzman’s straight-ahead prequel screenplay zips angsty farm boy rebel James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his future partner, the cool, logical, elegant Spock (Zachary Quinto) through their tumultuous childhoods and young adulthoods leading to their fateful meeting at Starfleet Academy. From there, it’s a quick jump into action aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise where the newbie crew’s first maiden voyage pits them against a Romulan time-traveling villain (Eric Bana) leading to a bang-up special effects finale that is not only supremely cool and fully satisfying but also leaves us wanting more, more, more.

The cast may at first look like Star Trek 90210, but they’re exceptionally well-chosen and eerily channel the famous characters instantly familiar from the TV series and created by the beloved Gene Roddenberry. In a cast packed with standouts, Pine and Quinto are especially charismatic and on the money, savoring the details, conflicts and quirks of their iconic characters. Karl Urban makes such an uncannily perfect doc “Bones” that he pockets any scene he’s in; Simon Pegg delights (all too briefly) as “Scotty”; and Bana, barely recognizable under all those prosthetics, delivers a star turn as the villain of the piece.

Two hours of beamed-up geek bliss, Star Trek is a big, fat Hollywood blockbuster, the best of the year so far, overflowing with edge-of-the-seat moments and loaded with old-time Hollywood know-how. Even if you’re not a Trekker, prepare to be wowed. Now, can somebody please turn Abrams and company loose on Star Wars?

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