Chris Pine has taken on a big challenge: how to play James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek without imitating the role’s originator, William Shatner

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 William Shatner?

He has apparently done just that, at least according to early reviews and a positive industry buzz that frames 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.

The film begins on the day Kirk is born—the same day his father dies 12 minutes into his first command as a starship captain. It follows Kirk through his daredevil youth and his Starfleet Academy career as a rakish Romeo. Then it’s off into space, where he and the rest of the crew must tangle with an angry Romulan named Nero. Paramount has already announced a sequel for 2011.

This Star Trek is not your grandfather’s starship. Director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III) grew up as a Star Wars fan and decided that Gene Roddenberry’s space-frontier epic could use a bit of the George Lucas mojo. This new version has intense dogfights, a sprinkling of exotic aliens and dollops of humour.

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