STAR TREK (12A).

Sci-Fi/Action/Drama/Romance. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison.

Space: the final frontier. This is the maiden voyage of a shiny, new Starship Enterprise under the captainship of director JJ Abrams.

Its mission: to revitalise a flagging yet beloved franchise, to breathe new life into iconic characters; to boldly go where so many have gone before.

Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who penned the recent reboot of Transformers, Star Trek is a big budget reimagining of the series, exploring the formative years of Kirk, Spock and their cohorts.

Ardent fans of the universe, created by Gene Roddenberry in the early ’60s, will take issue with some of the changes here, including the introduction of a forbidden romance and a time-travelling narrative thread.

The new Star Trek also lacks an imposing villain and two hours simply isn’t long enough to establish all of the crew in sufficient detail, but like the first X-Men, Abrams’ film is a solid building block for the future.

Michael Giacchino’s orchestral score is deafening (take earplugs or pain relief) from the opening sequence set aboard the USS Kelvin, captained by George Kirk (Hemsworth), whose wife Winona (Morrison) is about to give birth.

“We can name him after your father,” says Winona as she goes into labour.

“Tiberius?! That’s the worst,” quips George, as a Romulan warship under the control of Nero (Bana) opens fire.

Many years later, a cocksure and impetuous James T Kirk (Pine) enrols at Starfleet Academy, making an instant friend in Dr Leonard McKoy (Urban).

With Captain Christopher Pike (Greenwood) at the helm, crewmembers Uhura (Saldana), Chekhov (Yelchin) and Sulu (Cho) guide the pristine USS Enterprise into battle against Nero. The wily Romulan has a few tricks up his sleeve, pushing poor Spock to the brink as he races to save his father Sarek (Cross) and mother (Ryder).

Star Trek is a boisterous adventure incorporating that most reliable of plot devices, a black hole, which allows the filmmakers to ride roughshod over the past.

Action sequences are orchestrated at breakneck speed, enlivened with slick digital effects.

Pine inhabits his role with authority, but it is Quinto’s portrayal of the emotionally conflicted first officer, struggling to control the rage within which lingers the memory.

Simon Pegg plays Scotty for laughs, providing comic relief from the bombardment of explosions, bone-crunching fist fights and edge of seat escapes.

Before this Star Trek even blasts off, a sequel is already pencilled in for stardate summer 2011.