For his latest big-screen "Star Trek," director J.J. Abrams has managed to keep the fundamentals of the TV show but also to tart it up with movie action and CGI-happy effects. So, you still get TV sentimentality (wow, does Abrams know how to milk a death scene!), TV jokiness (Karl Urban oversells Bones' comic lines with sitcommy faux gravity) and even TV music (the soundtrack is very traditional). In this follow-up to Abrams' first whack at "Star Trek" in 2009, it's another race around the galaxy, with lot of battles and aliens and spacecrafts. This film is, though, really about the crew. Chris Pine has Kirk's brashness and ego down cold - plus, he knows how to finesse funny dialogue. He and Zachary Quinto, as Spock, bounce off each other with a wonderful sense of camaraderie. And Benedict Cumberbatch is positively eeeeeeeeevil as ... well, you'll see.

- KRISTINA DORSEY