Best ‘Star Trek’ ever?

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I ran into Zachary Quinto up in San Francisco at WonderCon and he was all smiles.

‘I just saw the movie for the first time last night,’ said the ‘Heroes’ actor who wears the pointy ears of Mr. Spock in the new ‘Star Trek’ film. ‘It’s pretty amazing. You have to see it...’

I want to. After interviewing ‘Trek’ director J.J. Abrams and seeing several extended chunks of the movie over at the Paramount lot, I’ve ramped up my expectations pretty high. I fully expect this to join ‘Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan’ as the very best of the ‘Trek’ films. It may even surpass ‘Khan.’ Why? I love the humor and the action I’ve seen and I think Abrams has the right attitude going in. And I think the ‘Trek’ films, as a whole, are a pretty flawed bunch.

I’m ready for a ‘Trek’ film that is engaging, energized and stylish. I think this might be it. I’m not the only eager Enterprise watcher: The new trailer for the movie was downloaded 1.8 million times in its first 24 hours as an iTunes offering and 5 million times since it hit the merchant site on March 6. That’s quite a bit of pent-up interest. Check out the action in this thing:

Here’s a random prediction: ‘Trek’ will finish as the fourth-highest grossing film of the 2009, behind the new ‘Harry Potter’ film, Pixar’s ‘Up’ and the ‘Night at the Museum’ sequel.

-- Geoff Boucher

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