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I’m not a Trekkie. Sure, I’ve seen the original motion picture and Wrath of Khan, but beyond that, I’m not attuned to the Star Trek universe. However, despite my ignorance, this reboot of Star Trek still contains enough action and excitement to keep a non-Trekkie engaged in the world.

The 11th film in the series is an origin story, following how James Kirk (Chris Pine) became captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. James is a loner whose father sacrificed himself in order to save James and his mother from Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan hell-bent on the destruction of Earth. The film also shows the audience the origin of Spock (Zachary Quinto), a Vulcan/human hybrid who uses logic instead of emotion to make his decisions.

All the other members of the Enterprise crew appear, from Uhura (Zoe Saldana) to Scotty (Simon Pegg). Chris Pine does a great job as Kirk, keeping the cockiness and swagger of William Shatner without imitating him. Zachary Quinto also does some good work with Spock, which is arguably the hardest role since Leonard Nimoy made it so iconic. While the film focuses much more on Kirk and Spock, each character gets there time to shine over the two hours. My only issue with the characters is that it feels like Nero gets short-changed with a lack of screen time, which slightly takes away from the threat of actual danger in the film.

Director J.J. Abrams has brought over his style of fast-paced action and intense close-ups he honed during Lost and Mission: Impossible 3 to make Star Trek something audiences can universally enjoy. In a few places, he overdoes the pace of the scenes and makes them incomprehensible visually, but overall, his work here is his best yet.

This version of Star Trek is able to accomplish what Batman Begins and Casino Royale did before it: reinvigorate a dying franchise back to respectability.