This weekend marks the opening of the blockbuster movie season with the new J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” movie that is set to revive the stalling franchise. Initial reviews are highly positive and we bet the new cast will soon be household names. Starting with the new Captain Kirk played by Chris Pine.
Wearing a trucker hat, battered blue jeans and an air of breezy confidence, Chris Pine walked through the Paramount Pictures studio lot like he owned the place but felt no particular need to show anyone the deed in his pocket.
It’s precisely that mix of fighter-pilot cockiness and surfer-dude Zen that you would expect from an actor who, as the leading man in “Star Trek,” has taken on the biggest challenge of any popcorn-movie star this summer: How to play James T. Kirk without imitating the role’s originator, William Shatner?
“That’s it right there, that’s the challenge,” Pine said on that November afternoon after a screening of early footage from the film, which opens Friday. “If I can do that, then we’re good.”
The L.A. native has apparently done just that, at least according to early reviews and a uniformly positive industry buzz that seems to frame “Star Trek” as this year’s “Iron Man,” a sleek summer movie with intense action, wit and surprising buoyancy considering all the heavy equipment taking flight. [continue article]
