I was able to attend a pre-screening of the new Star Trek movie last night (opens everywhere Friday, May 8th) with a few friends. It’s been known for some time that this particular Trek film — the 11th in the franchise — was going to be substantially different from all the others in several ways. First, it’s a “prequel”; second, it’s directed by J.J. Abrams, who has no prior history with Star Trek and in fact wasn’t even a fan before he was handed the script; and third, it introduces an entirely new cast. To say that die hard fans were apprehensive would be an understatement.

As for me, although I was a fan of Star Trek — I grew up with The Next Generation series with Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard, but I watched a good portion of the later series as well — I approached this one with an open mind. I knew it would be different, but I figured that it needed to stand apart, to attract a new audience and inject some life into a franchise that’s more than 40 years old and has been through ten movies and five television series. Still, I was unsure to what degree I was comfortable with Abrams and co. messing with what makes Star Trek…Star Trek. So when I sat down last night, it was definitely with mixed feelings, but I had high hopes.

Simply put: it was excellent. So far, everyone I’ve spoken to that saw it loved it, even the non-Star Trek fans. Lots of colorful performances, lots of action, lots of comedy, lots of pretty special effects…in short, a lot of bang for your buck. It’s a vastly different flavor from the other films — very little technobabble, far less nerdy, far more action, sex, and explosions. The story focuses on how the crew of the original series (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty) got started and how they wound up on the same ship together. You actually begin with Kirk’s birth, which gives some backstory on his father, and then jump forward to when Kirk is in his early twenties. Kirk, being a miscreant (surprise, surprise) needs some convincing to join Starfleet, but the memory and legend of his father, combined with some prodding from then-captain of the Enterprise Christopher Pike, pushes him to go for it. Some famous Trek lore is finally put on screen here (like Kirk “beating” the Kobayashi Maru test at the academy — a story referred to in at least one of the other movies and more than one TV episode of later series), and it’s all executed in a way that makes it entertaining and amusing to new viewers as well as satisfying to those who are familiar with the backstory.

As I said, the performances were great. Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock), having the lion’s share of the screen time, really shine and slide into their well-established characters quite well, staying faithful to their personalities while layering on their own take on what these guys must have been like when they were young. One point that seems to ring loud and true: Kirk and Spock were total badasses. The way they (and most of Starfleet) just go to town on their enemies and dive into dangerous situations with little regard for personal safety in this film makes the Starfleet officers of past films sort of look wimpy in comparison. The rest of the cast is very entertaining as well, although Karl Urban (Dr. “Bones” McCoy) might have overplayed the famously irascible doctor just a bit — but it was funny enough to let that slide.

Although we only got backstories on about half of the main cast, the only thing I really missed in terms of character development was that of the bad guy — Nero. You don’t find out why he’s doing what he’s doing until too far into the movie, in my opinion, which I can understand from a storytelling perspective but if you’re going string the audience along without knowing his motives then you at least need to make him a more three-dimensional character. Nero just didn’t get the screen time for you to feel how threatening he was. Still, it’s a minor quibble because the rest of the movie is executed so well.

However…(minor spoiler alert) it’s actually an alternate reality, giving the writers tons of room to explore the Star Trek universe in new and interesting ways. When I first realized this was happening (if you know even the slightest bit about “history” in the Star Trek universe, you’ll figure this out pretty early on), I was pissed off because I thought that the movie was just going to end with a massive “timeline reset” and none of it will have actually happened — a plot device that’s been used so often on the TV series that if it were a horse I’d take it out and shoot it.

Thankfully, they didn’t do that — this Trek movie stands now in its own universe, similar to but not the same as the one we’ve known for the last 40 years. That means that the producers and writers are free to create any new fantastic adventures they like without being locked into Trek historical continuity — which, after hundreds and hundreds of TV episodes, all the movies, not to mention hundreds (if not thousands) of books, has been pretty well hashed and rehashed into oblivion. If you were stuck in the “normal” Star Trek timeline, there’s almost nothing left to make a story out of without running the risk of messing something up.

Although it’s going to undoubtedly anger some really hardcore fans that there’s now this “alternate reality,” it’s really the only way they could create totally fresh adventures. I don’t know much about comic books, but I suppose it’s roughly analogous to all these newer comic book movies (like the new Batman ones) that have sort of pushed the “reset” button on their respective universes in order to give the producers some artistic freedom. In this case, it was done admirably — and this is coming, remember, from an old fan. The new Star Trek is a great ride, and is pretty much guaranteed to be enjoyed by Star Trek veterans and neophytes alike. Go see it!

Check out my favorite of the trailers embedded below, or go check it out in HD (it’s Trailer #3):

“Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives. Including yours. I dare you to do better.” Don’t you just love that line?

Have you ever finished a great book or film and enjoyed it so much that you wished that there was a sequel you could sink your teeth into right away?

Now imagine a movie so good that you almost don’t want there to be a sequel because you couldn’t bear the disappointment when it doesn’t measure up to what you just witnessed.

Batman: The Dark Knight has left me with that feeling. It has been called the “Godfather” of its genre, in that it will likely be decades — if ever — before anything tops it. It is a film of stunning writing, acting, and directing. It is epic in its emotional magnitude — you will want to laugh, cry, gasp in fear, cheer, cringe in horror, lose hope, regain your faith…it grabs you from the minute it starts and does not ever let go. The story between Bruce Wayne, the Joker, Harvey Dent, and Rachel is so perfectly woven that not once do you feel like anything is being forced, like anything was being written down to the lowest common denominator of movie-goers. It is complex and richly detailed, gritty and dark — so dark, in fact, that I’m sure it had to be close to an ‘R’ rating. You definitely feel the evil and chaos pervading Gotham City.

The whole cast is great, but of course, as we’ve all heard by now, Heath Ledger as the Joker was undeniably fantastic. It will no doubt go down as one of the greatest film performances of all time, made all the more poignant by Ledger’s death just over six months ago. He created a character that was simultaneously funny and bloodcurdlingly creepy. You could feel the menace and the psychosis through the eerie face paint, with every smack of his lips and flick of the tongue. It is something I will never forget.

Go see this movie. I don’t remember the last time I could give such an unequivocal recommendation. Everyone needs to see this movie (except for young children — it could seriously be very disturbing for them); this is a landmark film. I’m listening to the Batman Begins soundtrack as I write this and am still occasionally getting the chills thinking about what I saw last night. Go see this movie while it’s on the big screen. You won’t be disappointed.