Star Trek

Star Trek moves with warp speed between being ludicrously dumb and genuinely exciting. Another cultural stepping stone from the 60s has been rebooted for the new millennium. Under the helm of J. J. Abrams Star Trek succeeds at bringing familiar characters to new life and staging sci-fi action with verve, all while ignoring basic philosophical themes that made the 60s show a cult fave.
The original series was hardly known for its realism what with its palette of primary colors and fakey aliens. In the same way that music lovers can be Beatles people or Elvis people likewise sci-fi fans can be divided into Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans. The new Star Trek aims to skew all audiences regardless of their previous allegiance. The true movie space opera trilogy would be Star Trek II through IV. Wrath of Khan ends with Spock dead and in Search for Spock the story picks up that thread, and then at the conclusion of III we end on a note that segues right into Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (my personal favorite of the ST films). It would be foolish to think that Paramount (who also owns the rights to that perennial spy franchise Mission: Impossible) hasn't already greenlit the next Trek film with plans to continue the series until teleportation is a scientific reality.
Star Trek is an origin story and as such gives us views of child Kirk and Spock. An opening scene where a prepubescent Kirk steals a race car and literally drives it off a cliff feels contrived yet a later scene where Kirk and Sulu skydive from outer space to a platform above the planet Vulcan grabs you by your oxygen mask and doesn't let go. As another film review asks, why didn't they just beam down? Remember the movie Galaxy Quest (best Star Trek parody ever) where Sam Rockwell laments that crew members without last names are the first to die? Well that unwritten code of the universe finds an apt corollary here.
The Trek's best moment arrives when Leonard Nimoy appears and becomes an integral part of the story as Spock Prime. Abrams throws in plenty of Trek references from the show and previous movies. For instance there's an earwig (Wrath of Khan) used to torture Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) only it's shoved in his mouth, not his ear. Also from Khan a character shouts out a name loudly, only it's the villain (Eric Bana, truly playing a second banana) shouting Spock's name. Similarly, quotable lines from the original series are given new meaning here. ("I'm a doctor not a physicist.")
The various actors playing the familiar roles have enough moments to make them earn their stripes. In particular Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) have their characterizations nailed down and are the most enjoyable to watch. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) captures the arrogant swagger that makes him so heroic while Uhura (Zoe Saldana) has the hots for a crew member that will surprise devoted Trekkies. Simon Pegg enters the film in the middle and gives chief engineer Scotty a weird but vital kind of scientific humor. Sulu has serious martial skills and makes you forget John Cho was the stoner partner in the Harold and Kumar movies. Chekov (Anton Yelchin) speaks with such a thick accent you will not be able to understand everything he says. Among the supporting characters Winona Ryder playing Spock's mother reminds you that stars never fade, they just take smaller roles.
The plot concerns time traveling Romulan Nero (Bana) as he attempts to destroy planets with a device that creates a black hole at their core. The set design gives a depth to the interior of the Enterprise that has previously not been seen. Abrams shows a penchant for bright white light flares that almost become a signature look. A sojourn to an ice planet with ferocious monsters conjures images of the snowscape from Empire Strikes Back. Considering that Star Wars has essentially run its course Star Trek now has an open field to plow the galaxy.