Late evening, opening night. The line for the IMAX showing of "Star Trek" is hundreds deep an hour before the movie. Dotting the crowd are several people wearing colorful Trek-inspired costumes (Kirk yellow and McCoy blue seem to be the most popular), as well as a few folks incongruously wielding plastic lightsabers. The overall atmosphere is one of both anticipation and satisfaction. The former because it's been years since there was a new "Trek" movie, and even longer since there was a truly good one. The latter because the advance buzz has already promised that this one isn't just going to be good, it may just turn out to be great... the "Trek" film us die-hard fans have been waiting for ever since we first sat daydreaming in front of the tv as we watched the classic trinity of gallant Captain Kirk, crusty Dr. McCoy, and pragmatic Spock battle rampaging Horta monsters, woo green-skinned sex goddesses, fight dastardly Klingons, and fly the starship Enterprise into the very heart of the mysterious unknown to come out unscathed on the other side.

Frankly there was little doubt that this new and expensive "Trek" flick would deliver scads of action, adventure and pretty faces that would win over a new generation of fans, but for those of us old enough to remember the warm and cozy charms of the original television show, the question largely has been: does it pay respect to its beloved source material, or does it glibly cast the original aside in favor of a more crowd-pleasing spin on an old franchise?

Interestingly, and I would say mostly successfully, J.J. Abrams' new take on "Star Trek" does both. Given that this "Star Trek" is largely (but not entirely) a reboot of not only the long-running film series, but of the classic television show itself, it would have perhaps been easy to simply keep the basic premise while jettisoning the lion's share of the details. Instead, Abrams and scripters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have developed a cleverly convoluted storyline that allowed them to pay homage to the original "Star Trek" even as they essentially set about re-building it from the ground up. This isn't some hack and slash job akin to Michael Bay's "Transformers" (ironically also scripted by Orci and Kurtzman)... Abrams' film dishes out numerous little bon-bons for the classic "Trek" fans, ranging from witty snippets of dialogue (McCoy gets in one of his "I'm a doctor, not a..." rejoinders) to major revelations about the characters' backstories, and thankfully none of them feel condescending or dismissive. Abrams' "Star Trek" may play fast and loose with the established canon, but it does so with an affection that renders the changes not only appropriate, but ironically welcome (especially in the face of the diminishing returns of the last couple of "Trek" movies, which served mainly to illustrate how stale the series was becoming).

The cast delivers enjoyable (but again, respectful) interpretations of the original characters, largely eschewing caricature in favor of capturing the essence of what made those characters work in the first place. Chris Pine nails Captain Kirk's bravado while tempering him with a sense of uncertainty... his Kirk starts off as a bundle of untapped potential who needs a genuine crisis to bring about his metamorphosis into a capable leader. Similarly, Zachary Quinto's Spock nicely captures the character's emotionally conflicted nature even as the script takes him to darker places than the original series ever imagined. Karl Urban brings both humor and a gruff gravitas to his take on Dr. McCoy ("I may throw up on you" might not go down in history as a character-defining zinger along the lines of "He's dead, Jim", but it's still one of the movie's funnier lines). Zoe Saldana takes Lt. Uhura's sexy confidence and runs with it - it helps that she's given a bit more to do here than Nichelle Nichols often was in the earlier movies. Rounding out the crew are John Cho as a naive but ferocious Sulu, Anton Yelchin as an appealingly enthusiastic young Chekov (he still mangles his "V"s), and Simon Pegg, who nearly steals the movie as a lovably temperamental Scotty. Original Spock Leonard Nimoy also makes a welcome return to the big screen, his initial appearance eliciting enthusiastic cheers from the audience I was with.

Abrams directs with an eye toward action and explosions, and to that end he dishes out some of the most elaborate and visually stunning pyrotechnics ever seen in the franchise. Fortunately, he also takes the time to give the characters room to breathe and grow, so that by the end we've not only gotten to know these "new" characters, but also grown rather fond of them. Orci and Kurtzman's script is surprisingly clever and focused (especially considering these two were also responsible for writing "Catwoman"), providing not only the requisite thrills and drama but also some major twists that will most likely prove controversial with some classic "Trek" fans.

Personally I appreciated that this film was willing to rock the boat and take us Trekkies out of our comfort zones... its the first time in a long time I've felt actual suspense while watching a "Trek" movie. If the film could be said to err, it is in its softpeddaling of the more poignant character-based moments that often provided the classic series and films with their best moments - Abrams keeps his movie rocketing along nicely, but his emphasis on delivering one dazzling action setpiece after another often comes at the expense of quieter moments that might have let the characters truly blossom (Eric Bana's villainous Nero, in particular, could have used some fleshing out). There are also some credibility-stretching plot contrivances that might prove to be deal breakers for those concerned with things like an accurate portrayal of the laws of physics... to say nothing of some overly-convenient coincidences that had me teetering on the brink of completely losing my otherwise well-earned suspension of disbelief.

Still, despite its flaws, I can say as a lifelong fan that Abrams and company have not only delivered one of the most solid "Trek" films since "Wrath of Khan", in one fell swoop they've quite possibly kickstarted an otherwise stagnant franchise back to glorious life.