*Spoiler Alert* (Though it’s been out for more than a week, so go see it or deal with the spoilage.)

Finally got around to seeing this one. And I’m glad I went! This movie is a fantastic “this is why I love to go to the movies” kind of flick. I would have liked to see some Klingons but there’s always time for sequels. And as I expect this one to easily gross over 300 million in the U.S., a sequel should be greenlighted before this one is out on DVD. If you haven’t seen it yet, grab your popcorn and go have fun.

The good:

1. Star Trek is fun again. In the nineties the various Star Trek spinoffs wandered from their mark. The technology wasn’t forward thinking, the themes were too heavy or too spurious, and the shows failed to expand consciousness or the limits of entertainment. This is fun. Unbridled movie fun. There’s no gore, no nudity, and the brief mentions of sex are silly and fun.

2. The script. No plot holes, only minor abuse of the laws of nature, and a good distribution of screen time among the ensemble cast.

3. The casting. Nearly every character brings something substantial, and although some characters receive very little screen time, they leave a lasting impression. Chris Hemsworth steals the show as George Kirk, playing his all-too-brief part with fortitude and strength. It’s hard to get too deep in an action flick, but his performance really makes you understand the purpose of life and think to yourself, “If I had sixty seconds to live, what would I do with that time and why?” Simon Pegg is very funny as Scotty (duh), and nobody could have played young Mr. Spock like Zachary Quinto.

The bad:

1. John Cho. He brought pretty much nothing to the role of Mr. Sulu. He didn’t mess it up, but he did nothing for the part, katana-wielding notwithstanding. It makes even less sense to cast a Korean actor — who is clearly Korean and does not look Japanese at all — when he doesn’t bring anything special to the part to compensate for the mismatched ethnicity. All his presence did was make me wonder if casting directors still think that one yellow dude is pretty much the same as the next one.

2. Uhura, while portrayed as spirited and capable, is still just a piece of ass. I’d love to know what Nichelle Nichols thinks of this. Nichols nearly quit the original series because she was frustrated by her character’s lack of relevance. But Dr. Martin Luther King persuaded her to stick it out, as the well-spoken deck officer was a positive role model and a groundbreaking character on television.

Yet it’s 2009. Women have made significant progress in all facets of life, making most of the major complaints of second wave feminism obsolete. Sure, they spiced Uhura up to make her sassy and competent, but at the end of it, she spends more time mooning about after Spock than doing her job. What’s the point in having fantastic hearing and knowledge of all three dialects of Romulan if you’re flouncing around in your miniskirt, sneaking into turbolifts with the first officer to caress his pointy little ears?

And really. Spock. And Uhura? Really? Really??

3. A supernova is going to destroy a whole galaxy? The backstory for our villian, whom Eric Bana makes extra creepy through his unnerving informality with his victims, was a little weak. I just couldn’t believe that his motivation for destroying every planet in the Federation was Mr. Spock’s failure to avert a natural disaster. Uncompelling bad guys has been plaguing action flicks of late. I’m hoping that Terminator: Salvation and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen can remind movies that unless the bad guy is radtacular, his ass isn’t worth whupping.

The Awesome:

1. The special effects. This is Star Trek as Roddenberry could only have dreamed about it. No lame George Lucasish CG overdose. The sets are functional and realistic, and the deck of the Enterprise looks like the twin of the Heart of Gold. The explosions are spectacular, cg enhancements are seamlessly and realistically integrated into the physical sets, and the

2. Karl Urban. From the second he opened his mouth I was in love. Epic win. He captures in a brief and brilliant snapshot everything underlying the prickly dry bitterness that Bones carries with him, and finally it all makes sense.

3.The red shirt. Sulu, Kirk, and Ensign Ricky just formed an away team. Guess who isn’t coming back?

4. Kirk in College. You thought Kirk was a hothead and a dog in the series? Imagine him before he had any kind of maturity. He’s wrecking cars, throwing punches, smooching on alien babes, flirting with the nurses in sick bay even when his face is busted up, and chasing every skirt in town. My only disappointment is that he didn’t lose his shirt at least once. And to poke fun at all this, Uhura seems to be the one chick he can’t get. That almost makes her oddball hookup forgivable, because if Kirk has to miss out, it’s pretty funny that Spock would be the one to beat him out.