Great movie! Just plain great! Cast, story, directing, and costumes are all top notch stuff. Two things, however, make the new Star Trek reboot/prequel a potential classic...

Spock was bad to the ass in this film! Only have vague recollections from watching the Star Trek movies as a kid, but always assumed that Spock was incapable of emotion. Not the case at all. Especially when it comes to Mom Dukes. Breathe one ill word on the Vulcan's human mother (played tenderly by the ageless Winona Ryder), and Mr. Spock is ready to throw some bows. Without ruining some of the more emotionally charged moments, both times he loses his zen like calm is when someone brings up his momma. Come on, how cool is that? Chris Pine's Kirk has been receiving the lion's share of the reboot's hype but, for me at least, the breakout star is Zachary Quinto! While the die hard trekkies (sorry... trekkers) get murder boners at Leonard Nimoy's return as the future Spock, his presence, more than anything else, seemed to reinforce how fresh and needed Quinto's take on the character was. No disrespect to Nimoy. He deserves all the praise in the world for co-creating and preserving a pop culture icon that's lasted nearly half a century. But again, Quinto not only took the reins, but made you excited over where he can take this role!

The film looked gorgeous. Yeah. That's right. Gorgeous. Really no other word for it. The scenes revealing the Enterprise under construction didn't really drive home the "it could happen" idea, but lent just enough plausibility to dewey eyed fans who view Trek as the blueprint for inevitable politics with alien races. Every time a crew member raced to another section of the ship to urgently press a few buttons, the frame kind of swayed in a way reminiscent of a rocky sea vessel. That, combined with the fact that the main villain attacked lonesome ships in the far reaches of space, gave those moments the excitement of a pirate attack as opposed to the outdated history of people falling out of their chairs when the Enterprise was hit with a laser. A lot of the shots were saturated in bright glare, giving the film an "am I dreaming" quality. In the end, that fantasy mindset is what the franchise is all about.