Star Trek

Spoiler alert! I reveal some plot points and opinions that you may want to read after seeing the film.

J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and Alias has gone out of his way to sell this as a "reboot" of Star Trek. Having grown up on Star Trek, and also a fan of Lost, I was pumped to see this movie. A word of warning, though: the film does divert strongly from the Star Trek canon. Niro, a Romulan captain from the future, comes back to the past to destroy the Federation to avenge the destruction of Romulus (which is destroyed by a natural phenomenon). His interference in the space-time continuum creates an alternative timeline, it is explained in the film. Meaning that the Star Trek that we have watched growing up is still there, just in another reality... So any differences between this film and the ten previous films and five television series is okay. Just watch the movie and enjoy it. Gotcha. Message received.

Actually, I really enjoyed this film. Kirk (Chris Pine) is still a womanizing daredevil; Spock (Zachary Quinto) still cooly logical; Chekov (Anton Yelchin) still can't say words that start with the letter 'v.' Casting for this film is excellent. Incredible action. All the characters in the ensemble get a moment to shine in this film. And some great humor as well.

Overall, art direction for this film is well done, but inconsistent. The new look of the Enterprise itself is great. The sleek, form-fitting uniforms, the communicators and phasers all harken back to the look of the original series. The bridge, hallways and medical all maintain the traditional look. The unfortunate exception is engineering, which looks like they shot it in warehouse at a chemical factory – where are the rounded slopes of the exterior hull and the matter/antimatter chamber? (Okay, geek moment over.)

While there are some issues with this film ( the whole alternate reality thing is a real cop-out on the writers' part), I really enjoyed this movie. One worth seeing again!

Live long and prosper.