The remake or reboot if you insist should fall into the long list of poorly conceived and badly executed cash-in summer blockbusters and yet not only does it excel in entertainment terms it is also arguably one of the smartest films in years. Director JJ Abrams takes the original Star Trek series and movies and shows them whole-hearted respect by completely reinventing the franchise. Its an initially hard-to-swallow concept (especially for fans of Shatners Swagger or Nimoys raised eyebrow) but on reflection its a brazen and full-bloodied gamble which pays of handsomely.

A young and troubled James T Kirk (Chris Pine) gets caught up in a bar fight in Iowa, where he is spotted by Federation Star Ship Captain Chris Pike (Greenwood). Having known Kirk senior before he died in action, Captain Pike manages to convince Kirk to join the academy and train to follow in the footsteps of his father. At this point Kirk encounters half-human/half-alien Spock (Quinto) and the pair become embroiled in a dispute over a test but before the fallout is reached all the cadets are scrambled into action following distress calls from Spocks home planet. Along the way other familiar members of the crew join the Star Ship Enterprise but the danger they face is greater than they could ever imagine. A vengeful Romuland called Nero and his technically advanced ship hold the Federation responsible for the destruction of their planet and one member of the Enterprise crew in particular.

Anyone familiar with the original Star Trek mythology will be surprised at the changes done in this film, however because of the clever way it is done it allows all previous knowledge to remain valid quite simply what happened, happened but now their destinies have changed. This is all explained in a wonderful sequence on the Enterprise which is akin to the scene in Back to the Future 2 when Doc Brown takes a confused Marty and uses a blackboard to explain exactly what is going on. Now even though Doc was talking to Marty, everybody knew the explanation was aimed at the audience here however it is done with such flair that you welcome it and indeed it makes the film much better as it allows all the classic Trek moments to live long.

The cast are superb, with relative unknown Pine taking to the cocksure arrogance of Kirk like a duck to water. He and Quinto as Spock are the core of the film, but the crew would not be complete without the other members. Karl Urban plays the dour Bones McCoy and gives probably the most vivid turn in relation to the first series which is particularly welcome. Perhaps the villain of the piece could have done with a little more development but for a film that clocks in at two hours this might just be wishful thinking, and now that we have a fully functioning Enterprise and crew lets have more of the franchise.

Having seen the film on the Imax format, an additional standout feature of the film is the wonderful sound effects. Having been wowed by the films visually on the BIG screen, Star Trek really makes full use of the audio capabilities which arguably makes the whole experience that much better.