[8]

J.J. Abrams hands the reigns to director Justin Lin (director of several Fast and Furious movies), working from a script co-written by Scotty (Simon Pegg). The result? A damn solid entry in the Star Trek franchise, possibly the best of the three newest films. The plot involves your standard new bad guy (Idris Elba) trying to get his hands on a big, nasty weapon that will hurt a lot of people. That part doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get to spend time with the famous Star Trek characters. When Elba’s character attacks and destroys the Enterprise, the crew are separated and spend most of act two trying to get back together again. Spock and Bones are together (always a wonderful pairing) nursing Spock’s injury while calling for help. Kirk and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin) are together, trying to reach the crashed saucer section. And Sulu and Uhura are captured by Elba’s character and get to hear all his Dr. No-like explanations for his evil deeds. That leaves Scotty, who meets up with a sexy, dangerous alien warrior woman who lends a hand in the continuing action.

And the action is really good! Lin delivers what is probably the most action-packed Star Trek movie ever. But not, thankfully, at the expense of drama and earnest emotion. That stuff is in this movie, too. There’s not a big cry moment, really, but watching noble people do noble things for each other, in the name of unity and knowledge — especially in this age of back-stabbing politics — is enough to bring a tear to my eye.

With Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, and John Cho.

Oscar Nomination: Best Makeup & Hairstyling