Star Trek

Essentially dead by 2005, Star Trek, in all its incarnations, was largely relegated to those that spoke fluent Klingon. That is, until an avowed non-Trekkie, one Lost-creating J.J. Abrams, decided revive the franchise. Boldly going where no Trek movie had gone before, the Abrams-directed film not only takes on the hallowed origin story of Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise crew, it gleefully strips away the overly talkie/techie aspects of creator Gene Roddenberry's dense Starfleet lore. In their place, Abrams ratchets up the action and humor, approaching Star Trek's iconic characters as if they'd never been beamed away to some nerdy sci-fi netherworld. Featuring stunning visuals and inspired casting (particularly Zachary Quinto as Spock and Zoe Saldana as Uhura), this Star Trek is emotive and actually exciting, making it no wonder that enthusiastic audiences elevated the movie into a massive hit. Okay, it's not a flawless film--the time-travel element can be quite confusing, and the villain (a bald Eric Bana) mainly distinguishes himself by being really, really angry and aiming pointy things at people--but it succeeds in being smart, engaging, and accessible to those who don't know Romulans from Vulcans, and, by those virtues alone, it's the best movie in the Star Trek series.