What, no flying leg kicks and dramatic pauses for old times sake?: "Star Trek"

I mean, I can deal with no Shatner. But any reimagining, reboot or whatever you want to call it still needs to have his signature fighting move and unmistakable speaking style. I could try to put it into print here, but you're better off with this Kevin Pollak classic. And I do mean classic.

As for this new movie ... not bad. Not bad at all.

Most of you know of my affinity for the original "Star Trek." While I'm neither a Trekkie nor Trekker -- never been to one convention, honest -- yeah, I like the first go-around, and am pretty sure I've seen every episode. Never got into subsequent series, although I liked "First Contact." No, the original crew was always my fave, and I even broke out "Wrath of Khan" not too long ago. I've got it on VHS, and whoa ... let's just say the used rental store copy does not hold up well after a quarter century.

Our story here is centered around how the Enterprise came together in the first place, especially the dynamic duo of Capt. James Tiberius Kirk and his Vulcan first officer, Spock. Perhaps you've heard of these guys? The plot is nominally about Starfleet and the Federation fighting off a time-traveling Romulan played by Ang Lee's Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), but as with "Batman Begins" and "Casino Royale," it's really an origin story. As such, let's go over which characters worked the best:

1. Spock (Zachary Quinto): While Spock's human side often was an afterthought in the original series, his split personality is front and center here, evidenced by his ongoing battle to control emotions -- from rage to lust. I must say ... Quinto pulled it off. Never seen "Heroes," but the guy was a convincing young Spock, bettering his rival when it came to the big Spock-Kirk feud. Better yet, he delivered a fantastic "Fascinating ... " late in the movie. Alas, he couldn't channel Nimoy's signature eyebrow raise. Pity.

2. Kirk (Chris Pine): A punk, and god love him for it. His challenge wasn't so much to capture the original Kirk, since doing a young Shatner would be way too cartoonish. So he was just arrogant yet smart. Oh, and a horndog. Hooking up with a green-skinned cadet? Priceless.

3. Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban): Interesting choice at first blush, but boy ... did he get the original Bones down pat. It was actually too much at times, and it didn't help that his character got no juicy scene of his own. Still, good to see him pulling off a decidedly different role after doing mostly macho stuff (LOTR, Riddick, the second Bourne movie).

4. Uhura (Zoe Saldana): Good on them for giving her much more depth than the original ever had, plus bringing back the short skirts and knee boots. Also interesting to see her in a romance with another crew member, although they made their point well enough early on and could have eased off in the second half.

5. Scotty (Simon Pegg): After "Hot Fuzz," I'll never say anything bad about Pegg. The problem is that Scotty is so much of a caricature that anyone would have been trapped in a comic relief role. But hey, he does seem to nail the accent.

6. Sulu (John Cho): I respect giving him a fight scene and paying homage to a classic original series episode with a shirtless Sulu waving around a sword. But there wasn't much room for Cho to do much else, and I still can't look at him without wanting a sack of White Castles.

7. Chekov (Anton Yelchin): Another bit of tongue-in-cheek work by making him really young and laying on the thick Russian accent. I don't care.

So yeah, I'd say director J.J. Abrams did right by finding good guys for the most important roles and fleshing out the Kirk and Spock characters the most. We also get a good supporting cast in Bruce Greenwood, Ben Cross and -- yes -- Leonard Nimoy, while Winona Ryder and Tyler Perry pop up in odd (for them) roles. Points for creativity there.

Throw in some pretty good special effects -- space battles, transporter stuff and those trusty handheld phasers -- and the overall result is a successful relaunch. There are quibbles, sure. Abrams still insists on some choppy, tilted camera work with two-person dialogue scenes. It's a holdover from "Alias," I think. Didn't like it in "Mission: Impossible III," and don't like it here.

Also, the whole time travel/alternate reality stuff seemed unnecessarily confusing and kind of brought a previously brisk pace to a crawl after the halfway point. Honestly, I'm still not sure how everything fit together, and you know what, J.J.? I get enough of that frustration with "Lost."

Despite all that -- and because I'm clearly biased and want this movie to work -- "Star Trek" is great fun, and I'll definitely see it again at some point just to appreciate the introduction of Kirk and Spock. And if we're lucky, the second outing for these guys will do what "Wrath of Khan" did for the first movie series and take it to a next level. Given the solid foundation of this movie -- vs. the crapfest that was "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" -- we could be looking at a rather cool run. I, for one, certainly would like to see it ...

(Should I?)

(Nah.)

(Oh, OK.)

Live long and prosper.