Movies: Star Trek, are you a fan, or a Trekkie?

So, with that out of the way, I had my reservations along with everyone else when it was announced that Star Trek was going to be remade with new cast members for some of the most recognizable characters in entertainment history. But, as a movie buff, I was also excited, because it was clear that Star Trek had been stuck in a short-sided mindset for way too long, resulting in such bland series as "Enterprise" and box office failures like Nemesis. And with J.J. Abrams, the man behind Mission: Impossible III, one of the most underrated films of the last decade, and "Lost," one of the best television shows ever conceived, directing the movie, I knew I was in store for something good.

And Star Trek is good. Really good. Not every non-Trek fan will like it, but a lot more will than they think. Abrams, a self-described Star Wars fan (read: not a Trek fan), has given the franchise the breath of fresh air it so desperately needed. I love many of the previous movies, but they have generally suffered from low budgets and rather two-dimensional visuals; they've been made for Trek fans without the need to capture the attention of the general moviegoer.

This Star Trek is different. It's big. It's glitzy. It's action-packed. And it's funny, too. The visuals are absolutely amazing, giving Star Trek its first real chance to compete with Star Wars when it comes to action. Abrams dives into the action, almost to a fault, as ships are torn apart, worlds are destroyed and our heroes are bloodied in fist-to-fist combat.

Star Trek takes us back to the beginning, back to before the first episode of the original series and shows how Kirk became a captain, how he met Spock and Bones and everyone else. We see Kirk at his birth and how his father dies a valiant but horrible death. We see Kirk as a rebellious youth (I'm sorry, but was the car chase seen in the previews really necessary?) with an aptitude for risk - and carelessness. And we get to see the other characters before their chiseled perfection, including Spock, who is still torn between his Vulcan logic and human emotions.

The movie's plot is in many ways non-important, and yet it isn't a throwaway plot, either. Without giving too much away, Star Trek is about an alien named Nero (Eric Bana) who, after a devastating event in the future, has traveled back in time to unleash genocide upon the Federation and enact revenge on a young, confused Spock for something he has yet to do.

Star Trek is not a movie without its flaws, but it was impossible for this movie to escape without being picked apart. Regardless, it is an exciting, entertaining action film that will appeal to general audiences and guarantee many more Star Trek movies to come.

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Erik Samdahl is a marketing director for a Seattle firm and also writes movie reviews and articles for FilmJabber.com.