Space is the place

Does the new Star Trek boldly go where no previous Trek film has gone before? Does it move at warp speed? Will it live long and prosper?

OK, now that we've got the obligatory clichés out of the way, let's discuss the movie. To answer the first question: yes, it does venture daringly into terra incognita. It's not only the first of the 11 Star Trek movies to focus on the origins of Kirk, Spock and the Starship Enterprise crew, it also has the chutzpah to mess with what Trekkies call "the canon."

The new Star Trek's assets are its funny, sexy young cast and its headlong, adolescent energy.

As for its speed, let's just say this: it's directed by TV super-producer J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost), whose previous directorial effort was Mission: Impossible III. In other words, you can bet it's light-years faster than those Star Trek movies from the 1980s, whose Chekhovian pacing betrayed their origins in old studio-bound TV drama. (And by "Chekhovian," I don't mean Starfleet navigator Pavel, but rather the playwright, Anton.)

You can also bet it will prosper at the box office and rejuvenate the franchise. Rejuvenate is the perfect word: the new Star Trek's major assets are its funny, sexy young cast and its headlong, adolescent energy. Even if you only have a passing knowledge of Trekdom, you'll get a huge kick out of the way these nervy actors revive the iconic characters and catchphrases with a mixture of mischief and respect.

Abrams and his screenwriters, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, strike the right balance between an affectionate homage and a fresh start. They manage the latter by pulling a classic sci-fi dodge – the old "alternate reality" gimmick. Hardcore fans may not be happy that the storyline departs from the Gospel According to Gene Roddenberry, but Star Trek's creator is still here in spirit – particularly in the ongoing theme of the struggle between logic and emotion.

Spock and Kirk are still the mainstays. The film opens by nimbly sketching their backgrounds and contrasting personalities, as well as their shared stubborn streak, which make them at first enemies, then brothers. While a preteen hooligan Kirk (Jimmy Bennett) is racing stolen cars in dusty 23rd-century Iowa, on the planet Vulcan, the brainy kid Spock (Jacob Kogan) is standing up to bullies who tease him about his half-human parentage. When they finally meet as young men at the Starfleet Academy, it's to clash over the infamous Kobayashi Maru test for cadets: it was programmed by Spock (Zachary Quinto) to be unbeatable, but outwitted by a cocky Kirk (Chris Pine), who refuses to lose.

Although grounded for cheating on the test, Kirk manages to sneak aboard the Enterprise on its maiden voyage with the aid of his buddy Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban, looking and sounding uncannily like a young DeForest Kelley). The starship, under the command of veteran Capt. Pike (Bruce Greenwood) and with Spock as first officer, is on a mission to investigate a mysterious lightning storm near Vulcan. As it turns out, a 24th-century Romulan mining ship has made its way back in time through a black hole. At its helm is the vengeance-bent Nero (Eric Bana, with shaved head and facial tats), seeking retribution for a future wrong.

The first part of the movie is a pure delight, as one by one the familiar Enterprise crewmembers make their appearance in the form of eager but green cadets. Helmsman Sulu (John Cho, a.k.a. Harold of the Harold and Kumar comedies) gets flustered like a student driver when he can't shift the ship into warp drive. Navigator Chekov (Anton Yelchin) has trouble getting the voice-activated controls to understand his Russian accent. Casting comic actors like Cho, Yelchin (Charlie Bartlett) and Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) – who plays engineer Scott – turns out to be a stroke of genius. Where the original characters were often unintentionally funny, now the humour is deliberate.

Then there are the sexy bits and, surprisingly enough, they mostly involve Spock and the fiercely intelligent Uhura (Zoe Saldana). While Pine's Kirk is already en route to being a womanizer, shagging willing cadets like the lime-green alien Gaila (Rachel Nichols), he can't get with Uhura. And no wonder, when there's a cerebral hottie like Quinto's Spock on board. Quinto, who plays the super-villain Sylar on TV's Heroes, achieves the unthinkable feat of being coolly attractive despite a Moe Howard haircut and elf ears. In fact, he steals the movie from Pine whenever they're together on deck.

Quinto is thoroughly convincing as a young version of Leonard Nimoy's Spock – and if you have any doubt, you can compare them when Nimoy himself turns up, playing the elder Spock in a graceful extended cameo. (I did mention the time warp/alternate reality thing, didn't I?) Pine, in contrast, seems a long way from growing into the sturdy leader of men that William Shatner, for all his quirks, embodied. Instead, the younger Kirk is a space cowboy, a reckless rebel and a pretty boy, too – Pine looks less like Shatner than like heartthrob Jeffrey Hunter, the original Capt. Pike in the first Star Trek TV pilot.

In other respects, though, the movie is cozily familiar, from the technology – transporters, phasers – right down to McCoy's inevitable protest, "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a physicist!" At times, perhaps, it's too familiar. The scenario involving the revenge-mad Nero is lifted shamelessly from The Wrath of Khan – the best of the old Star Trek flicks – complete with an icky torture scene. And writers Orci and Kurtzman also dare to evoke Star Trek's longtime nerd rival, Star Wars, when Kirk is briefly exiled to a frozen planet. (Although the creepy alien monsters inhabiting it could've come from the Abrams-produced Cloverfield.)

By the end, the filmmakers' imagination flags as we're bombarded with repeated outer-space explosions and implosions – the usual orgy of computer-generated destruction that's become de rigueur with these blockbusters, as if that term was to be taken literally. Still, for much of the time, Star Trek is wonderfully entertaining. And you can't fault the state-of-the-art effects and design when they're used to enhance Roddenberry's vision. The Enterprise's interior, so laughably low budget in the 1960's TV series, retains its basic blueprint, but now looks sleek and high-tech. As shot by cinematographer Daniel Mindel, its bright lights repeatedly glare on the camera lens like stars.

In the box-office battle, the film already has the edge over its closest competitors, Wolverine and the upcoming Terminator Salvation. While those movies are the cinematic equivalent of lumbering, inarticulate brutes, Star Trek is smart, witty and light on its feet. It will be the blockbuster to beat this summer.

Star Trek opens May 7.

Martin Morrow writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.