.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

I can't remember if it was a Jedi or a Klingon that said, "The world is split up into two types of people. Star Wars people and Star Trek people."

Guess it doesn't matter who said it, the notion is indeed true. Arguments amongst geeks and fans have been around since Alderon was a planet of Tribbles with both sides of the debate digging in and passionately backing their arguments.

Me? Well, I'm a flip-flopper. When Star Wars was released, I was definitely a Star Wars guy. When Empire Strikes Back hit theatres, I was on my way to becoming a Jedi Knight. But as Return of the Jedi and the three prequels disappointed me, I began a shift towards the Star Trek series.

Now, many years removed from the Star Wars and the original Star Trek film bases, I find myself more interested in Star Trek films whenever they are on television while hardly giving a Star Wars airing anything more than a few seconds of invested interest.

And when I heard that Star Trek was being re-energized and that J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) was the genius behind the camera for a film that was going to show us the origins of the characters through Starfleet, well, I had adrenaline shivers down my spine 10 times what I had when I saw the first trailer for The Phantom Menace.

It's been seven years since the last Star Trek movie hit theatres and the timing couldn't be better. Taking over the famous roles of the U.S.S. Enterprise are Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Dr. Bones McCoy, Simon Pegg and John Cho as Scotty and Sulu respectively and rounding out the Bridge are Zoe Saldona as Uhura and Anton Yelchin as Chekov.

Their mission in this new adventure, takes a while to identify itself. We first have to watch as James T. Kirk fights and cheats his way through the Academy until a disciplinary hearing and a speech by Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to better himself, "You've always had a hard time finding your place in this world, haven't you? Never knowing your true worth. You can settle for less in ordinary life, or do you feel like you were meant for something better? Something special.", gets Kirk motivated and on board the Starship Enterprise.

Chris Pine portrays Kirk as an angry and defiant young man. His heated interaction with an active Captain Spock when questioned on how he was able to beam aboard the ship clearly paints a Kirk that has many more layers than Shatner's fuddy duddy.

Meanwhile, a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) travels back from the future seeking revenge from Ambassador Spock. His villainous acts bring Spock and Kirk together against a common enemy and send the crew of the Enterprise on their first true mission before they start with the whole 'Boldly Go' thing.

Star Trek is the second blockbuster movie to come out after Wolverine (also an 'origins' story). But where Wolverine was all flash and flare and lacking any true memorable moments, Star Trek delivers on the big screen with exceptional special effects, great acting and a story that kept the sold out audience engrossed while the subwoofers in the theatre rumbled our seats.

Star Trek the film is not perfect. How could it be? To bring audiences an origins story, Star Trek must spend time with each character, getting the audience involved in their individual history.

But that is the burden to which J.J. Abrams navigated, and he did so with enough energy to keep at least this customer so enthralled that I don't think I blinked for two hours in fear I would miss something. Abrams was smart enough to start the movie with an epic battle scene as the elder Kirk is killed while commanding the U.S.S. Kelvin. The scene was captivating enough that when the film quickly then shifts to the character driven origins parts of the story that you are not drooling awaiting a big climax, but instead, you are picking the glory of the CGI from your teeth happily waiting for the next eye-popping 'wow' moment.

Star Trek is one of those rare summer films that delivers on its trailer's promise. It's fast, it's funny (Pegg as Scotty gets most of the laughs with lines such as "I like this ship! It's exciting!" even if he doesn't appear until about the final half hour), and it appropriately honors its predecessors - Leonard Nimoy plays the Spock from the future (Leonard Nimoy), and yes, we do get the line "Live long and prosper". Wherein Casino Royale was the benchmark for rebooting a franchise while staying true to the better nuances of the characters, Star Trek perfects it while walking the tightrope in keeping 'franchise-unaware' audiences feeling as if they are still in the loop,

By the time we get Nero yelling out "Fire Everything!" and the final battle is in the books, we have taken a journey in a genre that has been ignored of any good entries (save for Boyle's Sunshine) in the past few years and we get our appetite whet for a sequel that can spend more time on character development and less on how we got there in the first place.

Nothing but good things are in store for the future, and Paramount Studios will undoubtedly boldly go to the bank for at least a few consecutive weekends with enough bags of money to buy the entire universe stock of Romulan ale. Star Trek is forecasted to reap in Wolverine type numbers ($80 million) and if it meets these lofty expectations expect to see the Bridge again filled with these new young faces by 2011.