It’s Star Trek, Jim, but not as we know it. This one’s bigger, brasher and more exciting than everything that’s gone before. JJ Abrams, the creator of Lost and Alias, has very boldly gone and breathed new life into a franchise that’s already had more deaths and rebirths - from the indifferent to the inspired - than the comparable but smaller-scale Dr Who. Abrams’ version of Gene Roddenberry’s idealistic space western isn’t perfect. But it is confident, clever and above all spectacular enough to please die-hard fans and newcomers alike.

The blockbuster film, which has its West End premiere tonight, is a prequel to the original 1960s TV series. Watching the first 15 minutes is like being stabbed in the heart with an adrenaline injection. The cataclysmic space battle that heralds the birth of James T Kirk gives us a taste of the spectacular effects to come. It’s followed by a brilliantly pacy sketch of the boyhoods that formed the headstrong human Kirk and the coldly logical half-Vulcan Spock.

In no time, Chris Pine’s cocksure Kirk is enlisting in Starfleet after failing to pick up Zoe Saldana’s absurdly slinky communications wizard Uhuru in a bar. All it takes is the arrival of a wrathful, time-travelling Romulan for him, her, Spock, old Uncle Bones McCoy and all to find themselves prematurely in charge of the Starship Enterprise, and of saving the universe.

Throughout, Abrams and his writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman adhere to the three driving forces of Roddenberry’s series: action, character, and smuggled-in, high-minded morality. The pace rarely lets up, and when it does, midway through, the story starts to look thin. Everyone jabbers about falling through black holes and “red matter” until the fighting and the whipcrack dialogue crank up again. To be honest, the plot is secondary. What’s dazzling is the way the film-makers have taken ownership of a phenomenon.

The young crew’s rough-edged relationships work in their own right and as back-stories for characters we already know well. Abrams puts in plenty of witty homages to the past without overegging it. Even Simon Pegg’s comic turn as Scotty is nicely judged. There are a couple of brilliant twists involving Spock and Uhuru that even a Vulcan mind meld won’t get out of me. And Star Trek’s message of pacifism and tolerance – even if achieved with phasers and fists – is so ingrained that alien  Enterprise crew members appear without comment. (Though not, it must be said, in senior positions or speaking roles. And miniskirts are still de rigeur for female officers, it seems.)

Chris Pine is an attractive, energetic hero but doesn’t perhaps bring the same eccentric swagger to the captain’s chair as William Shatner or Patrick Stewart. Eric Bana is also effective if two-dimensional as the villain, Nero. But Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban are superb as Spock and McCoy and together the crew makes a formidable ensemble. Sequels surely follow. Full ahead, maximum warp.

Star Trek opens on Fri 8 May.

Like my colleague Derek Malcolm, I've got no hesitation in recommending Tomas Alfredson's unnerving Swedish tale of vampirism and childhood unhappiness as this week's top film. The story, adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his cult novel, and set in a timelessly bleak and snowy suburb of Stockholm, is shot through with a looming sense of menace. Initially, this is because Oskar (remarkably natural Kåre Hedebrant), the 12-year-old son of separated parents, is being randomly but ruthlessly bullied at school. But there's also a killer on the loose, and then strange, watchful Eli (the magnetic Lina Leandersson) turns up, hiding a terrible secret. The film is remarkable not just for its novel take on the tropes of blood-sucker movies, and its potent stirring ability to generate fear and horror, or even for the striking performances of the two young leads. It is also very acute about the business of being 12 - the banality of playground violence and the confusion of hitting one's teenage years. I won't say any more. Except: see it. Ideally before the planned Hollywood remake