Star Trek (The Reboot)

I promised myself I wouldn't review blockbuster sequels or films that haven't yet made it to DVD, but I feel some obligation to let Middlebrowsers know that Star Trek the Do-Over meets most middlebrow standards. It is lively, it is reasonably intelligent, it is well acted, and doggone it, it's just fun! The actors they've found to play the main characters do a great job, though I've got some reservations about Kid Kirk (Chris Pine); searching for the adjective to express my reservations, my son Phillip suggested "smarmy," and I think that's pretty close. I gave up on trying to follow the plot (something to do with blackholes and alternate realities which means that none of the previous Star Trek incarnations have anything to do with current reality), but, as my son adroitly put it, the purpose of the story was merely to assemble the crew. I would also carp a little about the villain, Nero; his motives are pretty obscure and he's just not scary. I also could have done without dredging up the decrepit Leonard Nimoy as a Spock from an alternate future (where there apparently had been a short-lived TV series and a long-lived movie franchise for himself, Kirk, and company). If you see the movie, watch for Winona Ryder as Spock's mother; I just discovered who she was tonight, more than a week after seeing the movie. Also, can someone confirm exactly how many literal cliffhangers Kirk engages in the film--one dangling over a literal cliff in Iowa (cliff in Iowa?) as a deliquent teenager and another hanging for dear life from a floating drilling platform. Are there any more? Anyway, go pay your $6 to $8, buy yourself a big tub of high fat popcorn, and enjoy yourself.