JJ Abrams, 12 (2009)
As someone who has made a career out of populating unbelievable situations with believable characters, JJ Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield) was an inspired choice to reinvigorate a franchise that was always more about feelings than phasers.
That’s not to say that his Star Trek prequel — which imagines the salad days of Spock, Kirk, McCoy et al — doesn’t have moments of pupil-dilating spectacle, from car chases to skydiving punch-ups to lavish interstellar barnies. But at its heart is the nuanced relationship between callow, horny Kirk and a relatively hot-headed young Spock, who are imbued by the excellent Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto with jealousies, insecurities and all those other messy traits of human/Vulcankind.
(Rental/retail DVD, retail Blu-ray)
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DVD Extras
A commentary and an affable, collegiate making-of, in which Abrams and his fellow producers — who divide evenly between rabid Trekkers and the sane — take you through every aspect of the production. Plus a veritable star fleet of deleted scenes and docs.