Role: James T. Kirk

J.J. Abrams briefly revitalized Star Trek at the movies with this 2009 reboot, cleverly utilizing time travel to create a “new” Trek

universe, populated with familiar characters like Spock, Bones, Uhura, and so on, now played by (terrific) new actors. Pine has the unenviable task of following William Shatner’s James T. Kirk, and he acquits himself with élan. Origin stories have become tedious in superhero cinema, but it turns out that they’re a lot of fun applied to Star Trek, more than making up for the movie’s reconfiguration of Trek as more of a high-tech space opera. The humanity comes from Abrams’ warmth, humor, and great eye for casting, assembling a flawless new-old crew, with Pine and Zachary Quinto at splendid odds as Baby Kirk and Baby Spock.