11th 'Star Trek' to go boldly into prequel past

There's a popular theory about the quality of the "Star Trek" movies — that the even-numbered films are the best and the odd-numbered films ... well, not so much.

The first film, "Star Trek — The Motion Picture"; the third, "The Search for Spock"; the fifth, "The Final Frontier"; the seventh, "Generations"; and the ninth, "Nemesis," are considered the weakest.

On the other hand, No. 2, "The Wrath of Kahn"; No. 4, "The Voyage Home"; No. 6, "The Undiscovered Country"; No. 8, "First Contact"; and No. 10, "Insurrection," are all considered superior.

My two favorites are "Wrath of Khan" and "First Contact." Both even-numbered. Hmmm. ...

And now there's an interesting in-development movie project spearheaded by "Mission: Impossible 3" director and "Lost" co-creator JJ Abrams (who also did TV's "Alias").

According to reports, the 11th big-screen "Trek" will be set before the original television series with the possibility of younger versions of Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. (Popular casting choices among speculating fans are pals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as Kirk and Spock, and TV's "CSI: NY" star Gary Sinise as McCoy.)

Since this would be a prequel rather than a sequel, maybe it will be considered "Star Trek 0," which would completely remove it from the odds-vs.-evens debate.

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES. "Ghost Rider," "Norbit" and "Wild Hogs" certainly aren't the worst movies to have huge opening weekends — they're just the most recent bad movies to do so.

The critically savaged trio opened with $45 million, $34 million and $40 million, respectively.

"Ghost Rider" also benefitted from the four-day Presidents Day weekend and should break the $100 million mark today.

You can be either disheartened or encouraged by these success stories, depending on your point of view. But the question in critics' minds remains, "Why?"

I'm guessing that movie-starved audiences are looking for more escapist forms of entertainment, something that is a far cry from the all-too-serious world around us.

That certainly bodes well for "300," which opened this weekend. While the bombastic historical epic isn't a great film, at least it's more entertaining than the other three, especially for action-lovers.