Are you reading this? Wow, it still works.

Maybe I should start selling ad space here based on my ability to attract many, many readers to empty content with just a few key (and salacious) words. That would free me up to finish my series exploring the ethics of transferring prisoners to governments we know will torture them for information. Writing that would take me weeks, and six people would read it. This took three minutes to write. You can probably tell.

I blame the Internet.

The subtle connections of a deputy sheriff, a Nashville-bound singer, an ex-con, and a single mother will intertwine in this tale of small town life. Tommy Carson (Shawn Christian) works around the clock to keep the peace in Prospect, but Donny (John Hawkes), who is on a downward spiral, makes this even more difficult for the deputy Sheriff. Rhett Ryan (Chris Pine) discovers that the desire to follow his dream conflicts with his desire to be with the woman he loves. While Samantha (Bre Blair) does love the singer-songwriter, she comes to realize that what’s best for her daughter (Kali Majors) and their future may not be what’s best for him. Les (Adam Hendershott) just wants to fit in with his big brother’s friends, but his overbearing mother (Lin shaye) desperately wants him to stand out.

Check out the official site.

If J.J. Abrams had decided to pull an even harder reboot on Star Trek, he could have gone the oh-so-trendy zombie route and decided to make the new Captain Kirk a zombie. This would have made for a very different film, of course. In the scene where Spock (Zachary Quinto) tries to throttle him, Kirk’s head would have just fallen off. And all those shots of Kirk running around the shiny Enterprise would have been much longer. In fact, I think the entire two hours, six minutes of the movie would have been taken up with the zombie version of Cadet Fat-Hands shuffling from sickbay to the bridge to tell Captain Pike about “Brainsssssss …”

J.J. could have made Spock a werewolf, too, but that would have just been stupid.

You know what else is stupid? The way people land here at the Weather Station. Here are some real search engine terms used to find this site:

1. topless weather
2. shirley jones topless
3. small penis
4. heman tiger name
5. naughty teachers
6. korean wife
7. what to do if you call you boss a moron
8. spirit gum santa beard stay on
9. pictures of famous actors and their siblings
10. moron porn

(It is not lost on me that I’m just as stupid; I wrote the posts featuring those topics (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) in the first place.)

I also find it bothersome that there are posts on this site that took me a day to compose, and they’ve attracted a measly few dozen hits, but the one about the Killer Power Ranger has readership in the five figures, because of the nature of net search, and because people want trendy scandals and that kind of bullshit. I am, believe it or not, a serious writer, and a professional journalist, and I do put a lot of work into some of these posts. Others I just toss off on a whim, and those seem to be the ones people like.

If you’ve read this far because you want to know more about Zombie Chris Pine, sorry. I just did that to test a theory. If I’d called this Weird Search Terms or Weathereye Whines About His Readers, nobody would have found it. But I know from some friends that people are suckers for zombies, so I kind of tricked you.

I was a fan of the Star Trek series once upon a time. Infact, I vividly remember waiting for 9PM on saturdays just to watch this series. So I chose to watch this film because….Chris Pine, new technology and a fresh new look to the show.

Star Trek: The Future Begins features Chris Pine as James Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, and seems to focus more on how their destinies are shaped by the outcome of events beyond their control.  The story revolves around Earth, Vulcan and Romulus. The starting scene is like a nuclear bomb that sets off a chain of events…a USS Enterprise ship – Kelvin is destroyed by the Romulan rogue ship, Narada whose captain Nero wants to exact revenge on Spock. Then we are shown the childhood days of Spock, the human/vulcan hybrid and James Kirk, the son of the deceased captain Kirk who commands the ship Kelvin. Both are highly intelligent beings with IQs off the charts but both try to rebel against the established order.

Spock and Kirk meet during one of Kirk’s simulation trainings where Kirk is accused of cheating in the test and is under probation. But then news of an attack on Vulcan reaches the Starfleet which immediately dispatches a fleet of ships on rescue mission. All but the one on which Kirk is smuggled in by his friend are destroyed in a trap laid out by the Romulans. Kirk who remembers the pattern that precedes the attack by Narada warns Captain Pike who hatches a plan to destroy Narada’s jammers. Kirk and the ship’s pilot, Hikaru successfully destroy the jammer only to see Narada drop the red matter into Vulcan’s core to create a black hole through implosion. Spock tries to save the elders but loses his mother seconds before the planet is consumed by the black hole.

Meanwhile Captain Pike is tortured by Nero. Spock being Spock decides to reconvene with the Starfleet for further instructions and maroons Kirk on a nearby cold planet for mutiny. Kirk meets an aged and wizened Spock there who tells him that Kirk is the one to stop Nero in his scheme to destroy Earth. Kirk acting on Spock’s plan enrages Spock to the point he gives up his Captainship and then orders a full attack on Narada. Kirk and Spock then join forces in destroying the red matter within Narada and rescuing Pike. The Narada is destroyed successfully and so is Nero.

Back on Earth, Kirk is promoted as Captain of the Enterprise while Spock encounters his future self in the hangar and the two have a brief chat about the events before Ambassador Spock leaves for the new colony. The younger Spock and Kirk try to establish a friendship aboard the Enterprise. And this is just the high level overview of the story. There are more deeper concepts and backgrounds behind each character which is explored a little in the film.

Star Trek as a series was certainly very interesting but as the series progressed it failed to retain my attention. I thought the movie was well made what will all the 3D technology at disposal and certainly hope to see more films under Star Trek saga. This movie falls into a class of its own where you can’t comment on the actors per se but more on the storyline. But Pine does have the charisma to re-enact the original Captain Kirk’s role for sure. Its a must-watch for all Scifi fans out there.

Star Trek 2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition

The Rogers Revue’s Personal Log – Stardate: November 17, 2009

It was only a mere six months ago that we witnessed a rebirth of a timeless classic. For some of us, it was a journey into a familiar world of ultimate science fiction. For others, it was their first taste of “Warp Speed”, “Scotty, Beam me up”, and “Kirk Out”.  Yes, we are talking about one of the first summer blockbusters of 2009, STAR TREK! J.J. Abrams had taken a four decade worldwide phenomenon and made it more action-packed, hip, and exciting for today’s audiences. In return, the new Trek brought in over $257 million dollars, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2009 and rebooting the fledging franchise.

Now, Star Trek is back in full force with its set of DVDs which was released this week. Fans can choose between the standalone disc, the 2-Disc DVD Digital Copy Special Edition, or the 3-Disc Blu-ray Digital Copy Special Edition. For my DVD revue, I will take on the 2-Disc Special Edition.

The 2-Disc Special Edition packs a serious punch for the ultimate Trek Fanatic in your family. It includes ninety minutes of special features within its two discs. In the first disc featurette “A New Vision”, the viewer will get a twenty minute behind the scenes look into the reboot of Star Trek. You will see the crew use some old fashioned movie making techniques, interviews with the cast and crew, and how the producers used real locations instead of green screen to incorporated realness into the movie. My favorite featurette in the first disc is the “Gag Reel”. We’ll witness how several of the cast flub their lines and the trek technobabble. In addition, J.J. Abrams shows his hidden talent – the beat master of the microphone. In one climatic scene of the movie, you will see the comedic interpretations of Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Fans will enjoy see the cast and crew get their groove on in a dance montage. For trek fans, to FINALLY see a gag reel in any of the films is a blessing!

 The second disc brings more special features to the table. The first of which are the deleted scenes. You will see nine scenes that did not make the film including Spock’s birth, Nero captured by sentenced to the Klingon prison planet Rura Penthe, and an extended scene Kirk and Gaila which leads to the Kobayashi Maru simulator. There is commentary for each of these scenes.

“To Boldly Go” is another behind the scenes look at the reboot. This focuses more on the crew of J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and Roberto Orci on how they got involved with the development and making of this epic movie. Their goal was to make the film enjoyable for not only lifelong trek fans, but to all movie audiences. In addition, another goal is to pass the baton to the new cast and crew of the Starship Enterprise. We learned how to the producers brought Leonard Nimoy to put on the ears that made him famous for over four decades.

In the “Aliens” featurette, you will see some new species that are making their debut in the Star Trek galaxy. The new aliens include Kasia, Madeline, a new alien barfly, and Scotty’s alien companion, Keenser. Keenser is played by Deep Roy who was recently in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Fans will get to see Leonard Nimoy’s process of getting his ears once again to play Spock Prime and Zachary Quinto embracing his transformation as he takes the reins as Mr. Spock. The most unusual alien in the new Trek was Big Red on the Delta Vega planet. It’s a combination of a turtle, dragon like monster that chases Kirk on the ice planet.

The icing on the cake with both the 2-Disc and the 3-Disc Blu-ray edition is that they include a digital copy that IS compatible with your PC, Mac, and iTunes.  Simply put, you can transport the ultimate trek saga anywhere in the known galaxy. With its outstanding interactive graphics, spectacular features, and bounds of trek trivia, Star Trek DVD is ahead of the curve at Warp Factor Nine!

FINAL GRADE: A+

Star Trek 2009 BluRay

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members. Star Trek is a 2009 science fiction film directed by J. J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and produced by Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk. It is the eleventh film based on the Star Trek franchise and features the main characters of the original Star Trek series, who are portrayed by a new cast, though the film introduces an alternate timeline differing from the original series. It explores the backstories of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), before they unite aboard the USS Enterprise to combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from the future who threatens the United Federation of Planets.

Google Keyword Search : Star Trek 2009 BluRay 1080p x264 DTS-WiKi

NOTE: This is a huge file as its bluRay.

            Believe it or not, I have been a Trekkie for most of my life. It’s hard to believe I know but I could recite to you even the most trivial of information concerning Trek from who played Mugato to where the head is located on the Enterprise-D. So you can believe that I was overjoyed that J.J. Abrams new reboot of the 1966 television show met all of my highest nerdy standards. At long last, a Star Trek movie that “boldly goes” where no trek flick has gone before.

           This film covers the backstory for Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) and all the other crew members that have become such beloved icons in the world of science fiction. When a Romulan with a vendetta travels to the past through a black hole the youthful crew of the Enterpise must face their first dangerous mission head on. In this unexpected life or death situation the crew must learn to deal with each other and their personal conflicts or be destroyed by this powerful enemy bent on revenge.

            While most of the actors in this movie are younger than what we are used to seeing that does not mean that their performance is at all lacking in quality. While still very new to acting in big screen blockbusters Chris Pine offered the same kind of audacity and testosterone soaked bravado that has made Captain Jim Kirk famous. Costarring with the likes of Zachary Quinto as a spot-on Spock, Karl Urban playing the down home doctor Bones McCoy, and Eric Bana playing a very creepy and Khanesque villain this movie is certainly not left wanting for good acting.

            This film offers plenty for the die hard fanatics but it is still very entertaining for those who think that a Klingon is a tiny ball of lint stuck to a dress. Abrams new take on Gene Roddenberry’s brand of science fiction was respectful of the same adventurous spirit while still offering the same campy tongue in cheek sense of humor. It is littered with references to the original series and even some of the others such as ensigns in red shirts to the sultry emerald skinned girl from Orion. Abrams new reinvisioning of Star Trek is a real shot of adrenaline to the arm of a movie franchise that was close to dead. This movie sports brilliant special effects and turns the action up to warp speed. It also manages to keep the same kind of multifaceted characters that people have grown to love for more than thirty years. So if you’re quarantined to your house with a debilitating case of the swine flu or stuck in sick bay with the Andorian shingles “Star Trek” is the best new release DVD on shelves right now.

Johnny Depp is not sexy. He’s not. Is herpes sexy? Heroin addicts? Dirty unwashed hobo? These are all things that come into my head when I look at Johnny Depp. And that’s not to say that he actually uses heroin or has herpes – though if he has slept with anyone in Hollywood he probably does. I can’t believe he is People’s Sexiest Man Alive. Again!

So many sexier guys, people! I know you want suggestions, so how about 5 guys who are hot as hell and also relevant right now (hence why I cannot include, say, Zac Hanson).

1) Gilles Marini.

Did you see him on Dancing With the Stars? His hips don’t lie. Did you see him in the Sex and the City movie? His penis don’t lie, either. And now he’s on Brothers & Sisters and adorably charming. I need a French man. Or, you know, a man in general.

2) Jesse Williams.

Look at his eyes! His eyes! They are the only thing you can see when he’s cutting up fake bodies on Grey’s Anatomy and that’s pretty much okay with me.

3) Chris Pine

He was in one of the biggest movies of the year and he’s gorgeous. Why is he not on the cover instead of greasy-haired weirdoface ? Please note, I actually really like Johnny Depp as an actor. I would just never have sex with him. And I would have a lot of sex with Chris Pine. A lot. If I still remember how.

4) Eddie Cibrian

Cheater? Yes. Homewrecker? For sure. Drop dead sexpot? Um…yeah. Look at him. Look at his dimples. I could live in one for a year and half. But I’d rather live in his giant bum.

5) Mark Sailing

I know he has douchy hair, but if I can get past that then so can you.

What do you think, ladies and homogentleman?

I had planned to write about Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian because I just saw it yesterday and thought it was pretty good…. AND then I watched STAR TREK again.

J.J. Abrams has taken over my TV.  My girlfriend is obsessed with LOST, and quite frankly I’m obsessed with this movie.  I’m going to wear out the little bits of data on this DVD before I send it back to Netflix.  Let me also describe my pre-J.J. Abrams Star Trek relationship:  hate.  I am and will always be loyal to the greatest trilogy of all time: Star Wars. I am NOT a Trekkie; I do not approve of  Trekkie behavior; and yes, Han Solo could beat the shit out of Capt. Kirk.  Onward.

Zachary Quinto- a.k.a Sylar. Yes, I was hoping that at some point during the movie he would cut off someone’s head using his finger, but unfortunately, Abrams kept Sylar at bay.  Quinto plays a perfect Spock to Chris Pine’s Kirk.  His deadpan delivery makes everything he says sound perfectly logical, while also getting the most out of the script’s humor.

Chris Pine- Captain Kirk. Pine channels the cockiness of Shatner into the newest incarnation of the legendary captain of the Enterprise. (The character as a whole was just awesome in this movie- even the younger Kirk who steals that car was cocky and awesome.)  But Pine does the brunt of the work, and oh boy is he good.  He plays the hero perfectly and deserves every bit of credit that he can get for his portrayal.

The entire ensemble cast needs to be back for the sequel.  While Quinto and Kirk are the main characters, John Cho (Harold and Kumar, American Pie), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings) are just a few of the supporting actors who helped make this movie great.  They provided much of the movie’s humor and kept the Spock and Kirk characters fresh.

A+   This movie was the BEST of the summer.  It bettered a number of strong contenders coming into the summer, including the powerhouse Harry Potter.  It made almost $385 million and Paramount can’t wait for the release of the sequel.  I can’t wait to see where Abrams takes the sequel, hopefully to where no one has gone before.

Aunque tengamos asumido que J.J. Abrams dirigirá la (doble) secuela de ‘Star Trek‘ , no tendría por qué ser necesariamente el caso, teniendo en cuenta además que Abrams es una de las personas más ocupadas de Hollywood. Aun así, el cineasta siempre tiene tiempo para charlar amablemente con la prensa, como ocurrió durante la promoción del DVD / Blu-ray de ‘Star Trek’ . Les paso a relatar las respuestas más interesantes:

¿Cuál es el estado de ‘Mission: Impossible IV’?

“Estamos trabajando en el guión y tenemos una historia increíblemente fresca. Es literal, lo estamos escribiendo en este instante”.

¿Qué circunstancias se tienen que dar para que usted dirija ‘Star Trek 2′?

“La verdad es que la idea de que otra persona pueda dirigir esta película me rompe el corazón. Fue realmente divertido trabajar en ‘Star Trek’. Por el momento, no podemos saber cuándo se escribirá el guión. Será entonces cuando me pregunte si debo dirigir o no la película, y también decidir si es lo mejor para mi familia. Para mí es muy difícil saber si dirigiré la cinta cuando todavía no hay ningún guión. Tomaré la decisión cuando llegue el momento”.
Al margen de estos interesantes proyectos, Abrams también fue preguntado sobre ‘Micronauts’ , adaptación de los famosos juguetes de los 70’s en la que también se ha involucrado al director. Aquí, Abrams declinó hacer comentarios: “De momento no hay nada confirmado. Estamos debatiendo y si se diese el caso estaría encantado. Es prematuro, creo que es una idea bastante buena pero hablaré cuando haya datos concretos”.

The day is winding down in my corner of the universe. Tomorrow fresh smut.

I’m happy to be back nuggets. Going to be changing up the site shortly. You’ll likey. I promise.

I’ll leave you with these brief gossip headlines from the day and see you all tomorrow. Bright eyed and bushy tailed.

xo

Miss A

A weave? Maybe. A man wig? Highly doubtful. – Gossiplist

Of course it took her 9 hours to get ready. She has 9 lbs of makeup on her goddamn face. Twat. – PopEater

I f*ckin’ love Penelope. How can you not? – Celebitchy

The Magnetic Crotch is Man of the Year. It’s a ManParade of Hotness over at GQ Magazine. – MTV.com

What the irrelevant will do to stay relevant. The mind reels. – DListed

She’s designing jewelry for Coach. I’m burning my Coach bag and boots when I get home. – Just Jared

What a f*cking moron. Famewhoring Fail. - EOnline

She had doubts about her boyfriend? I have doubts as to whether or not she has a brain. – US Weekly

(update of a previous post – original is here)

Data
Title: Star Trek
Year: 2009
Length: 126 minutes
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, based on the TV show by Gene Roddenberry
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban
Music: Michael Giacchino
Distinctions: currently #134 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a time-traveling Romulan has a vendetta against Spock
How I saw it: in the theater, May 2009; on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Great. As a geek, I am required by law to love the whole Time-Travel-Created-Alternate-Universe thing.
Story: Terrible.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Terrible. J.J. “Lens Flare” Abrams does everything he can to take you out of the movie.
Special effects/design: Indifferent.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great. Michael Giacchino orchestrating a classic sci-fi TV theme song… that’s all anyone can really ask for from a movie.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). Fun and fast paced. There’s some nice comic relief, and loads of geek-pleasing moments. The action scenes are a mess. The plot isn’t very interesting, mostly just getting the characters re-introduced – which is fun for a fan, since it’s extremely well cast (especially Karl Urban’s Bones) and the characters and dialog are well-written – but there’s still not much plot. It’s not a science fiction movie, and it’s not a submarine movie like previous good action versions of Star Trek have been. In place of those elements, there’s standard loud, fast-moving-camera, dumb action. They’ve got the characters down right; now they just need to put them in a movie.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good).

Ya les pase las fotos de las personalides del año (click aqui) segun la revista GQ, ahora los dejo con las portadas del mes de diciembre en donde aparecen los mencionados, Chris Pine como la revelacion y hottie del año, Tom Brady como la ama de casa que todos quieren y el elenco de the hangover como los comediantes del año.

click en las pics para agrandar

The always-sexy Chris Pine covers the December issue of GQ. The magazine named him 2009’s Breakout Star of the Year, and it’s easy to see why. With a high profile role in Star Trek, and a truly unparalleled sexiness factor, he is breakout man of the year in my book.

I’ve always been into Chris Pine’s casual, effortless look. I’m a sucker for a boy in a plaid button down, sneakers, and Ray Bans. But he looks divine on the cover:

Chris Pine - GQ - Courtesy of Just Jared

This issue highlights the magazines “Men of the Year” and the list includes some notably accomplished, well-dressed men like Bradley Cooper, Barack Obama, Clint Eastwood, and Tom Brady.

I’ll be picking up my copy of GQ ASAP. I know it’s a men’s magazine… but this is a win-win: sexy men and great writing.

Get your copy today while it’s cheap and help make Star Trek XI the top-selling DVD/Blu-Ray of the year. which I have no doubt it will be and enjoy It all over again in the comfort on your home Visit the “official” site to see the basic chooses you have of course every retailer will have their own exclusives see the links on the right under Star Trek.

Star Trek is here. It’s not with William Shatner this time. It’s high octane action with great special effects and a killer storyline.  It has my vote for best of 2009.  This Blu-Ray is legit.  Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zaqary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Eric Bana.  Awesome combination.  This movie takes the Star Trek saga to a whole new level.

Pick it up at Amazon for 19.99 3-Disc Blu-Ray / DVD + Digital Copy!  Awesome deal IMHO.

Watch it being unboxed

Watch the Trailer

Eric Bana gives Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto some hair care tips.

(Paramount) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison, Rachel Nichols, Faran Tahir. Directed by J.J. Abrams

Even icons from time to time must reinvent themselves, if for no other reason to remain relevant in changing times. That is even more true for those having to do with the future.

The Federation starship U.S.S. Kelvin is investigating strange readings at a black hole. To the surprise of the ship’s captain (Tahir), a gigantic spacecraft of unknown design emerges from the singularity and without any provocation at all, opens fire on the starship, crippling it. The captain is forced to come aboard the unknown ship and is escorted to its captain, a Romulan named Nero (Bana),  who proceeds to ask the Federation representative some rather odd questions, the strangest being what stardate is it. The answer drives Nero berserk and he murders the captain and once again opens fire on the Kelvin.

The second-in-command (Hemsworth) orders an evacuation of the doomed Kelvin, paying special attention to his wife (Morrison) who is in labor. He intends to join her, but the ship’s automated functions are out of commission, and they are needed to gain critical time for the crew of the Kelvin to make their escapes. He realizes with sickening horror that he must remain aboard to run the ship manually. The young lieutenant saves his crew by ramming the dying starship into the unknown spaceship, crippling its weapon systems and propulsion. The name of the young hero? George Kirk.

Years later, his son James (Pine), born the day of his death, is adrift in Iowa, drinking in dive bars, picking up every woman he can and generally just lashing out at the world. While attempting to pick up a pretty Starfleet cadet named Uhura (Saldana), he gets jumped by a number of cadets, holding his own for awhile before getting his tush handed to him until Captain Christopher Pike (Greenwood) stops the fracas and clears the bar. He talks to the young Kirk about his father, and the difference he made to the 800 lives that were saved by his sacrifice and invites Kirk to join the Academy.

At first Kirk is reluctant to join Starfleet but eventually relents. On the shuttle ride to San Francisco, he meets an irascible divorced physician who is joining Starfleet to rebuild a career that had been essentially stymied in his divorce. The medico’s name is Leonard McCoy (Urban).

Already at the academy is a young half-Vulcan named Spock (Quinto). Tormented by young Vulcans for his half-human ancestry, Spock elects to follow the Vulcan disciplines of logic and dispassion of his father Sarek (Cross) with the blessing of his compassionate mother Amanda (Ryder). Despite this, Spock elects to decline admission to the Vulcan Science Academy (the first Vulcan ever to do so) and join Starfleet. After graduating from the Academy, he devises the notorious Kobiyashi Maru test, the infamous “no-win” scenario.

In the meantime, a brash young Ensign Kirk is blowing through the academy in a mere three years, still picking up women wherever he goes including a beautiful young Orion ensign (Nichols) who has come up with a rather ingenious solution to Spock’s test, landing him in hot water with the Academy dons. Unfortunately, an emergency comes up that relates directly to Kirk’s past, one that will bring all the disparate elements and characters together and forge together a crew that is destined to become a legend, while a man from the future (Nimoy) holds the key to the lives of Spock and Kirk.

The Star Trek franchise has been in decline for several years now, with an over-saturation of product that eventually seemed somewhat formulaic in many ways. Star Trek reboots the franchise with the original characters as seen through fresh new eyes. Director J.J. Abrams balances a delicate line of maintaining the spirit of the original series while adding additional elements of action and epic scope. Thus his new re-imagining of Star Trek will please not only hardcore Trek fans but also more general audiences.

Electing to go with a cast of young actors while steering clear of big name actors (Bana as Nero is the most recognizable face in the show other than Nimoy, and Bana is nearly unrecognizable in any case), and they come through in spades. All of the major crew members (Cho as Sulu, Pegg as Scotty and Yelchin as Chekov, as well as Urban and Saldana) have extremely pivotal scenes and establish their characters nicely.

Much of the success of Star Trek rests on the shoulders of the two leads, and they pull through splendidly. Pine captures the essence of James Tiberius Kirk without the quirks and mannerisms of William Shatner. He nails the bravado, the charisma, the independence and the compassion of Kirk but at the same time manages to render him human and fallible. Like Shatner’s Kirk, he is rash and sometimes prone to egotism, but at the heart of him is his brilliant intuition and willingness to risk. Pine takes an epic character and makes him accessible.

Quinto, best known as Sylar on the hit TV show “Heroes” makes a marvelous Spock. He radiates icy calm that masks the boiling inferno below the surface. Spock is heavily conflicted but chooses not to come to terms with his conflicting natures; instead he subverts his more human aspects in favor of the Vulcan stoicism. Quinto also has an uncanny resemblance to Nimoy as a young Spock, and fills the boots more than adequately.

There are plenty of breathtaking special effects, not to mention some intense action sequences, the best of which is a parachute jump onto a drilling platform high in the atmosphere of Vulcan. Visually, this is a movie that will rock your world.

But is it Star Trek? That’s the question most Trek fans were hoping to have answered. I have to say, yes and no. The original television series in many ways was less action-oriented than this is. Yes, there were plenty of fistfights, phasers set on stun and epic space battles in the original, but the themes had to do with things that were important to series creator Gene Roddenberry; man’s inhumanity to man, racial tension, drug abuse, gender inequality and the supreme waste and ultimate uselessness that is war. Here, we are being re-introduced to the characters that the producers hope to rebuild the franchise with and the movie is more about that than taking on issues.

However, the foundation has been laid and hopefully in the future we’ll see stories more in tune with the high bar that Roddenberry set. Given the outstanding box office returns the movie had, it is inevitable that there will be at least one or two more installments in the movie series if not more. The action and special effects will get the bodies in the door; the characters will bring those bodies back for more. Abrams has hit a home run with the new Star Trek. Now, the question becomes can he do it again?

WHY RENT THIS: Breathtaking special effects and heart-pounding action sequences drive the movie. Young actors bring established characters back to life with fresh perspectives. Pine makes a fabulous Captain Kirk and could be a future star.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The overall tone that Trek-haters despised is still present here.

FAMILY VALUES: Some scenes of brief sexuality and some violence; also there is a nightmare-inducing creature during the Delta Vega sequence. Otherwise, fit for most young audiences (but not for the very teeny tiny).

TRIVIAL PURSUITS: The seven years gap between this movie and Star Trek: Nemesis is the longest in the franchise history.

NOTABLE DVD FEATURES: There are three different home viewing versions of this so far: a single-disc DVD which is essentially just the film, a 2-disc Special Edition DVD which contains some deleted scenes including Abrams’ take on the Klingons, and a 3-Disc Blu-Ray which contains a humongous number of featurettes, as well as a 360 degree view of various Enterprise and Romulan sets. There is also a feature on Gene Roddenberry’s legacy.

FINAL RATING: 8/10

TOMORROW: Disney’s A Christmas Carol