DVD Release Date:  November 17, 2009
Theatrical Release Date:  May 8, 2009
Rating:  PG-13 (for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content)
Genre:  Action
Run Time:  126 min.
Director:  J.J. Abrams
Actors:  Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Anton Yelchin, Winona Ryder, Leonard Nimoy

A favorite sci-fi franchise is reborn with Star Trek, director J.J. Abrams' take on the early days of James T. Kirk, Spock and the other well-known crew members aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. The film's fresh approach to the well-worn franchise takes viewers back to the origins of the crew's beloved characters. By starting the franchise again, Abrams has brought a freshness to Trek and has launched a memorable young cast into a series that may come to define their careers the way that the same roles defined the careers of predecessors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

But that doesn't mean the film is a slam-dunk. Far from it.

Although it has some fun moments and decent action, Star Trek amounts to surprisingly little and gets by primarily on viewer identification with characters earned over decades of repeats of the TV series and numerous films with the earlier cast. It's a reset more than a reinvention—familiar lines from familiar characters, but uttered at an earlier age. Seeing these traits in younger incarnations of the Enterprise crew is amusing, but has its limits.

The film's early moments show promise. We see George Kirk listen in as his wife, who has fled a doomed ship while in the throes of labor, gives birth to a boy, to whom George gives the name James. A restless, rebellious Iowa youth, James (Chris Pine) will follow his dead father's footsteps into the Federation. On a different planet, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is growing up, too, learning to fend off his Vulcan peers' taunts about his human emotions—a trait passed on to him by a human mother (Winona Ryder).

Spock and Kirk square off as rivals while in cadet school, but will end up serving together aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Joining them are McCoy (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana) Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho).

The characters all exhibit defining traits—heavy accent (Chekov), gruff retorts (McCoy) and unbound enthusiasm (Scotty)—but the character development belongs to Kirk and Spock. Challenged to be more like his father, Kirk, a daredevil, excels in the Federation and gains the favor of the Enterprise's Capt. Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Spock learns how human emotions can hinder his ambitions, but he develops the wisdom that informs the film's main message about friendship, and, somewhat surprising, doing "what feels right."