And boy, does he ever. Beginning literally with the birth of Jim Kirk that is probably the biggest atomic wedgie on “canon” ever yanked in Trek history, Abrams breaks from the need to fit into the tightly-woven mold of five television series, ten movies, and a small library of books, all of which add something to that ever-expanding Trek universe. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurzman have delivered what seemed like the impossible: a brilliant script that fires on all thrusters.

But don’t let the fact that Abrams, Orci, and Kurzman have turned the Trekiverse on its pointed ears fool you into thinking that this is a bad movie. They’ve done a masterful job of making it relevant, exciting, and most importantly — fun. To be fair, though, they had a lot of help, specifically from a young cast where each member fills iconic roles to perfection. Trek fans (including this writer) asked themselves and each other for ages, “Who could play Kirk other than William Shatner?” Well, now we know. That man is Chris Pine.

Pine’s Kirk is young, vibrant, sexy, brilliant, and has the sheer guts and is downright arrogant. To be blunt, Chris Pine is James T. Kirk. Thankfully, he didn’t fall into the trap of mimicking William Shatner’s odd…pauses…betweenthewordsashespeaks. Watch for one particular sequence involving an apple that’s an outstanding homage to a similar apple in The Wrath of Khan.

Zachary Quinto dons the pointed ears as a young Spock, who personifies a younger version of Leonard Nimoy, except for the voice. Oh well, can’t have everything. I do think that Quinto had a little bit of an advantage, though, since Nimoy himself also appears as “Spock Prime,” the older version of the iconic character we all know so well.

The film opens with an explosive sequence that literally has the audience gasping for breath, and introduces the villain, a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana). Nero is, as Spock Prime puts it, “A highly disturbed Romulan.” That’s about all I can say without spoiling the film, and the fun. He’s not quite as rich of an adversary as Khan was, but he holds his own nicely, and presents a great “galaxy is at stake” threat.

We’re first introduced to Kirk as he hits on the hot chick, and gets into a four-to-one fight, only to end up running into Captain Christopher Pike (Lee Greenwood), who insists that he joins Starfleet. “Shuttle leaves at 0800 tomorrow.” Does the angst-ridden hothead that is Jim Kirk take him up on the offer? Of course he does. After all, he has to join Starfleet to become Captain. Plus, there are so many green women out there!

The third person of the great Trek triumvirate is Leonard “Bones” McCoy (we finally learn what “Bones” means), played perfectly by Karl Urban, who’s been in far too many genre films to list. Among them are two of the Lord of the Rings films and The Chronicles of Riddick. This man gets around. He’s found in McCoy all those elements that make our favorite irascible country doctor as lovable as he is. He doesn’t mimic the late DeForest Kelley. He becomes McCoy.

All of the others are there. Simon Pegg is Scotty, Zoe Saldana is Uhura, John Cho is Sulu, and Anton Yelchin is Pawel… er Pavel Chekov. The late Majel Barrett Roddenberry provided the voice of the computer just before her death in December. Every character has their moment, and their time to shine. Put simply, they’re perfect.

As the eleventh film in the Trek series, Star Trek takes its place among the best of them. Is it better than Wrath of Khan? Well, I’m not sure I’m willing to say that just yet. But it’s darn close. Maybe it’s the fact that Kirk bites into an apple in both films.

The script is tight, the editing is nearly flawless, and the direction is spot-on. Star Trek has joined a few of the recent big-budget blockbusters with its “action in your face” imagery, which sometimes makes the audience wonder what’s happening (think last year’s Transformers). Thankfully, Abrams does a great job in pulling out often enough to let us get a sense of the size and scale of just what the hell is going on.

Diehard Trek fans will take issue with some of the rapid promotions seen in the film, and yes, they seem a little contrived. Certain romances will also take them by surprise, but they make sense. Of course, with the near-religious “canon” turned on its heels (even if it is well-done), some fans will end up in convulsions no matter what. I’m not sure which would be more entertaining to watch, really… a trekker twitch as he complains about the placement and size of the engine nacelles or the aesthetic values of the new Enterprise, or the film itself. To be honest, though, there’s something twisted in my mind that would rather watch a twitching trekker.

“That’s… not…canon…generoddenberry…would…be…spinninginhisgrave…” Yeah, that’d be fun to watch.

But, I digress. The movie is brilliant.

Let’s be fair, though. Every time something comes along as a reboot, it’s instantly met with a lot of skepticism and cautious optimism. I certainly had plenty of both. But now that I’ve seen it, I’m convinced. My skepticism was relieved, and my optimism was honored. Star Trek is back. And it’s one of the best Treks ever. The words “Space, the final frontier….” have never been uttered against a film that was as sharp, action-packed, and completely human. And it’s just gone into warp speed.

Hellboy and Hellboy 2 joins the long line of great films that were inspired by comic books, and is one of the few comic books that I never read during my collecting days. Perhaps this is a good thing, as the film is uncluttered by previous expectations of certain villains and characterizations that must be met. In my mind, Guillermo Del Toro, who wrote and directed this film, is free to tell whatever kind of story he can imagine.

While it’s not the masterpiece of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy 2 is a deliberate fairy tale mixed in with a brilliant observation of the nature of man – as told though the eyes of monsters. No matter how strange the images on the image might be, the film is a probe of pinpoint accuracy of just what makes the hearts of men tick.

Ron Pearlman reprises the title role of this film which takes place well after the events of the first film. Aside from a simple narrative at the opening, there’s little need for background as the story is a self-contained work that masterfully fills the role of a second chapter, rather than a rehash of the first.

Gone are the shackles of the “human star” who was to provide a lens to the freaks. In Hellboy 2, it’s the freaks who tell the story. It’s their movie, their lives, and their world. Their hearts are real, as are their relationships. Here, the inebriated monsters sing “Can’t Smile Without You,” laying out just how insane love really is.

It’s the audience that reaps the benefits of Hellboy 2, one of the few truly great films of the 2008 summer season; firmly framed in a world that exists only in our dreams and fantasies.

Doug Jones’ reprisal of Abraham Sapien is part ballet, part psychic, and part fish. Jones provides the voice himself instead of being dubbed over by David Hyde-Pierce (who said he modeled his voice after that of Jones’ performance in the first film). Perhaps Jones has a taste for the bizarre, as he also hides under the latex in two other roles in the film, including one which hints at a strange destiny for Hellboy.

It’s Luke Goss and Anna Walton who together provide the threat of the film, as fraternal elf twins with an eternal link; with Nuada (Goss) hell-bent on wiping out humanity, and Nuala (Walton) must somehow stop her brother. The tool of Nuada’s plans is a mechanical army of massive golden soldiers who can only be controlled with a crown that must be assembled from three parts.

The story is simple enough, and Nuada’s motivation is solid, both of which provide a clean palette for the artistry that only Del Toro can provide. As such, Hellboy 2 is as much a literary success as it is a visual triumph. The visual effects are stunning (even if they are CGI), and the rest of the technical aspects of the film are equally superb.

If there’s really a world where trolls can fill a marketplace for fresh-chopped fish, Del Toro has clearly seen it. What’s more, he makes us want to visit; inviting us into a place as dangerous as it is whimsical, and unconventional as it is strikingly familiar.

Thanks to Hellboy 2, the summer of 2008 will serve a list of truly great films that is only getting longer. First it was Iron Man, then Wall-E, and now Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight which is the best of all of them. After a year filled with duds (with but precious few gems), we’re fortunate to have a summer where the blockbusters are actually great.

The fitting tagline for Hellboy 2 is “Saving the world is a hell of a job.” It’s a hell of a movie, too.

Then I realized that so was Downey’s character, Tony Stark. This began a glimmer of hope. Gwyneth Paltrow was cast as Stark’s executive assistant Pepper Potts. Thus another twinkle. With Jeff Bridges added to the principle cast, there was finally something that wasn’t in the mix before: hope that it just might not suck!

Iron Man, like all of the other superhero films of late have three standards it must meet before it will be accepted in the realm of great movies. The question isn’t whether it would be good; instead, it was a question of whether it would reach the level of quality that was seen with 2002’s Spider-Man, 2005’s Batman Begins, and the ultimate superhero film standard, 1978’s Superman: The Movie. To date, only one comic book film has surpassed all of these standards, and that was Spider-Man 2, released in 2004.

Either Iron Man would hold up to these standards, or it would be another abysmal failure in the lines of Elektra, DareDevil, or Hulk. To say those movies were bad is an understatement.

Well, true believers, Iron Man does NOT suck. In fact, it’s so refreshingly brilliant that it sets itself as a standard in its own right. The script is refreshingly sharp, as Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway somehow were able to deliver even after several rewrites. The characters are real; they’re human, they’re smart, and they have depth. The first scene with Gwyneth Paltrow had me completely satisfied with her integrity as a great character.

The film’s true star, though, is Downey, who fills the screen with complete brilliance, and shines through at every opportunity. In a role that could have been nothing more than wit and one-liners, Downey deliverers a genuine depth that can only be touched on in future films.

Oh yes, the inevitable sequels. We’ve all seen films that say, “There’ll be a sequel” when we see some sort of ridiculous revival of a villain or a subtle-as-a-baseball-hint that makes such a sequel obvious. A good example would be the 1980 camp classic Flash Gordon when a supposedly-dead Ming (Max Von Sydow) picks up his ring after the closing credits.

Yes, there’s a setup for a franchise with Iron Man, but its final scene is so refreshing, so satisfying, and so sharp in its dialogue, that a sequel is practically mandatory. What’s more, it leaves the viewer completely open to any number of possibilities; all of which in a world of hope. There are two films which have similar “final scenes;” Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home with the brand-new Enterprise-A flying into outer space, and the final flyby of the DeLorean in 1985’s Back to the Future.

The film opens and closes with dialogue from Downey’s Tony Stark, but it’s everything in between that elevates the film into full flight. The characters are rich, they’re deep, and they’re human. Even the final showdown with the Iron Monger (a beefed up version of Stark’s super suit) is met with a brutality that lets the audience feel every punch.

While there are indeed elements in the film that could have been trimmed or cut back, I actually WANTED to see the construction of the suits. It’s what was lacking in the first Spider-Man film. Part of the Spider-Man lore is that Peter created his own suit, but that was done with classic Sam Raimi shorthand. Favreau, on the other hand, not only made the technology believable, but he made his title character’s genius equally believable.

Clearly, Favreau knew that a film about incredibly intricate technology should also include equally complex characters. Every nut, every bolt, every twitch, and every quirk is seen. The plot, while somewhat predictable is as complex as a movie like this should be. In short, it works like the well-oiled machine that it is.

Iron Man is the first film of the 2008 Summer film season, and already it sets the tone – action movies can be great fun, and they can actually be great. It’s a classic popcorn movie that will thrill audiences all around with a ride that isn’t just escapism; it’s fantastic. Fanboys will appreciate the suits that were designed by Iron Man comic artists, and the rest of us will appreciate the fact that Iron Man is a fun ride for everyone

Teen angst is a major part of everyone’s life, but when it comes to Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), angst explodes into magical proportions. Such is the premise of this fifth film in the popular series. Indeed, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a film about a young boy’s angst as much as it is about subversives in the face of a prevailing darkness.

Since Chris Columbus left with his shucks-darn style of directing, the Potter series has taken a darker turn, mirroring their literary counterparts. In Azkaban, the third film, Alfonso Cuarón introduced the lightning-fast storytelling that would be seen in following films, a technique that director David Yates has used masterfully. The leading actors have all grown up, and thankfully, the films have matured as well.

Phoenix begins with Harry being taunted by his muggle (non-magical folk) cousin, but the schoolyard bully is chased away by beings that are far more horrifying, dementors. Harry drives them away using magic, and as a result, he ends up on trial and risks expulsion from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Harry is clearly troubled by the recent murder of his friend Cedric Diggory, especially because Diggory was killed by the notoriously evil and dangerous Lord Voldemort. To make matters even more frustrating, the leaders of the wizarding world have completely ignored Harry’s warnings that the Dark Lord has returned from apparent death fourteen years before.

Even warnings from Hogwarts’ headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), have fallen flat and were even ridiculed in The Daily Prophet, the wizard world’s magical newspaper. It seems that the head of the Ministry of Magic, Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy), is convinced that Dumbledore is after Fudge’s job so therefore, anything he says is suspect.

The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is the chillingly delicious Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), who is a clear supporter of Fudge at any cost. Instead of actually teaching Hogwarts students how to defend themselves against the dark arts (after all, there is no real threat), she limits the students to textbook theories. Harry must somehow convince his classmates that the threat is real, and eventually is compelled to teach them how to defend themselves. Harry doesn’t want any of this, he just wants a normal family.

The political overtones of The Order of the Phoenix are so overt that they’d be hard to miss. Themes of subversion, extreme loyalty, punishment, and outright rebellion are broad slaps to governments on both sides of the pond. Yet Phoenix is able to rise above criticizing modern politics and becomes a timeless warning against maintaining the status quo. The film’s lesson is that abuse of power is costly, no matter its goal or motives.

The prevailing darkness that is evident in The Order of the Phoenix seeps through to the core of the film, making it probably too scary for small children. This is a film for everyone else though, whether or not we’ve read the book on which this film is based. Clearly much had to be excised from J.K. Rowling’s excessively verbose novel, but even avid Potter readers will appreciate how much remains. The world that Rowling created is no longer a matter of “oh, look! It’s a goblin! Look there! It’s a bunch of bricks that form a door! Wow! It’s a talking hat!” Instead, it’s a living, breathing world that Harry must defend using any means necessary.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a complex yarn that is as subtle as it is sharp, and it’s biting as it is soothing. Harry gets his first kiss, but it’s moviegoers that get the real benefit: an escapist film that actually has the audacity to teach while it entertains.

After the first five minutes of this iconic film, I realized that I was in for a treat. Alfonso Cuaron’s visual storytelling techniques are among the best around. He skillfully puts the camera so that we’ll understand exactly what’s happening, but it’s not the typical spoon-fed garbage that is so common in film.

Clive Owen as Theodore Faron was deeply human, but heroic character that really gave us a birds-eye view of what was happening in 2027 London. With the addition of Michael Caine and the brilliant Julianne Moore, Children of Men took us to the heart of passion and humor that makes us human.

By the time we’re introduced to Luke (Serenity’s Chiwetel Ejiofor), the plot is thrown through more twists and turns than a bowl of incredibly rich pasta.

The story opens with the death of the youngest human alive, an 18-year-old guy named “Baby Diego.” Humanity has become sterile. Later, Faron (Owen) encounters a young black woman who is pregnant, the first pregnancy in 20 years.

The race is on to bring her to safety from those who will either exploit her and her baby for violence or kill her to protect their way of life. One of the most incredible scenes is when scores of revolutionaries and British soldiers are all rendered silent by something they hadn’t heard in more than two decades: a crying baby.

It’s what movies are about; nay. It’s what life is about.