Ayo! Scott identifies with James Tiberius Kirk. The critic and the captain both know that, whether the skin is yellow, red, black, white, brown, green or blue, it’s all black hole when the lights go out. That’s about as deep space as Ayo!’s identification with Star Trek goes. After all, he doesn’t have a glandular problem or sleep on a twin bed in his mom’s basement, and the only convention he’s interested in is girl-girl-girl-MILF-Ayo! It’s a testament to director J.J. Abrams’s even-handedness that a non-devotee like Ayo! thinks his new Star Trek is out of this world…

The franchise spawned from the 1966 TV show begins anew when Romulan terrorist Nero (Eric Bana) time travels through a black hole and alters the Star Trek universe by killing newborn Kirk’s father and plotting the destruction of Federation planets, specifically Vulcan, home of the conflicted half-Vulcan half-human prodigy Spock. When they come of age and meet at Starfleet Academy, new recruit Kirk (Chris Pine) and instructor Spock (Zachary Quinto) are baggage-ladened adversaries, not a BFF captain and first officer who’ll double team deepest, darkest space as they probe the unknown. To defeat the terrorist threat and realize their destinies, however, the odd couple must deal with their demons and rebuild a friendship that existed in an alternate reality. Ayo! knows that sounds soft and sweet as purple alien p, but it’s not.

Abrams does a great job balancing Star Trek’s heady allegories, referencing current topics like terrorism and the merits of torture without coming close to the dry dialogue-heavy intergalactic episodes that only a true Trekkie could love. During intense—but never overdone—action sequences, lasers blast all up in your face (oh my!); the women are, of course, fine (see Zoë Saldana as Uhura); the acting all around aims for the stars and touches them (a special shout-out to Complex homies John Cho and Anton Yelchin, who play Sulu and Chekov respectively). There are plenty of details that hardcore fans will pick up on, but the inviting plot and tone of Star Trek make it more than a cult movie, leaving so many franchise pick-ups in its star dust. Now if only Abrams could make an adult version where green alien chicks whip out the threes.

Check out the Star Trek trailer to see if this sci-fi gem gets your spaceship airborne.