Star Trek– ***1/2
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Eric Bana, John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: May 8, 2009

Commanding attraction from a once commendable television franchise, which, up until 2009, has seen countless diffident reboots, is Star Trek, a new perpetual powerhouse film that is an imaginative mix of futuristic grandeur and old-fashioned history. The movie echoes the unmistakable freshness of a distinctive and original action picture while still pertaining to the origins of a forty-year-old series that will still satisfy die hard Trekkie fans and lay a new slate for first timers.

The creative imagination behind the TV series Lost and action pictures like M.I. III is J.J. Abrams, and he is at the forefront of reconstructing a partly departed and retroactive, iconic television series from the 60s. Sounds appetizing when given the amount of numerous failed attempts at reincarnating the Enterprise; the last being 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. Abrams recognizes those films’ faults and is up to the challenge to fathom a dissimilar approach to a decades old problem that hindered most Star Trek movies.

Quite possibly the biggest movie of the summer may just be J.J. Abrams re-launch of the beloved Star Trek franchise. MTV was lucky enough to visit the set and chat with some of the cast and crew about the project.

After their visit, they released a small featurette with an intro from Zachary Quinto (Spock), which is basically the trailer we’ve seen intertwined with short statements from a bunch of the actors, including: Simon Pegg (Scotty), Chris Pine (James Kirk), John Cho (Sulu), and Zoe Saldana (Uhura), as well as director J.J. Abrams. There’s also supposedly some new footage mixed in, but nothing stand-out. You’d have to look closely to see it.

Basically, the actors just chat about how cool the project is and how exciting it is and how Abrams is like “… a 10-year old kid who’s making movies in his backyard.”

As you know, this new Star Trek will give us a look at the early days of James T. Kirk and his crew on the USS Enterprise. The movie will be released in theaters on May 8, 2009.

Click over to check out the video!

Paramount has released a new Star Trek logo today for the upcoming film directed by JJ Abrams.

Click the image of the new logo here at right for a larger view.

Also, the official Star Trek site has been updated to include a new section in its main Nav menu called “Panoramas,” which includes two corridors angles from the USS Enterprise.

Be on the lookout in theaters starting on Friday, March 6, 2009 for the film’s third trailer, which will feature new footage, in theaters running ahead of showings of Watchmen.

Press Release

Paramount Pictures’ Star Trek to be Released as IMAX(R) Movie MAY 8, 2009

J.J. Abrams’ Vision of the Greatest Space Adventure of All Time to Run in Select IMAX Theatres

LOS ANGELES, CA, Dec. 12 — Paramount Pictures and IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ: IMAX; TSX: IMX) today announced that Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams (“Mission: Impossible III”, “Lost” and “Alias”), will be simultaneously released to both IMAX(R) and conventional theatres worldwide on May 8, 2009. Star Trek, which chronicles the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members, will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience(R) with proprietary IMAX DMR(R) (Digital Re-mastering) technology. Paramount Pictures will be the exclusive distributor of the film to IMAX theatres worldwide.

We’ve been talking all week about EW’s most recent cover story, which featured Star Trek XI stars Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine as Spock and Kirk.

The full cover story is now online (8 pages!) at EW and it’s definitely worth a full read. It contains several tidbits about the film, as well as a few spoilers, some of which we’ve covered already, but below are a few more items we’ve yet to mention.

Also, new images from the upcoming J.J. Abrams Trek prequel were also released, some of which we were able to snag some hi-res versions (all new images are here below).