Star Trek

I wanted to see this movie when it was in theaters. Somehow I never got around to it. I wanted to see it when it was at the discount theaters, again I didn't get around to it. I finally rented it this weekend. While I would not consider myself a Trekkie, I have always been a Star Trek fan. I usually like the movies, and I regularly watched The Next Generation series on TV. I am a little young to have watched the original series on TV, but my parents made sure we saw the movies.

This movie was good not great. For those few of you who may not be in the know, this is an origins story with a twist. It shows you how the original characters from the series came together to man the Starship Enterprise, well how they would have come together if it had happened in an alternate universe. For those of you who are closer in age to my generation you may find some of this movie boring or confusing since you are probably not familiar with the original cast. Sure you have heard the phrase "Beam me up Scottie" a lot of times, and you may be cool enough to do the Vulcan farewell, but you don't really know much more than that. For this group of people this movie is more about the action and adventure of deep space travel.

The story is that a Romulan man named Nero has traveled back in time to try to prevent a tragedy to his people. He personally holds Spock responsible. Nero kills Kirk's father, so Kirk grows up a rebel with no respect for Star Fleet. He still ends up joining but winds up as a stowaway on the Enterprise's first voyage instead of captaining it. The Enterprise pursues Nero across space to try to stop him from destroying Earth. It's very entertaining. There are lots of phasers, hand to hand combat and explosions. I definitely think that you non-Trekkies out there would enjoy this movie.

For those of you that do know and love the original Star Trek cast then this movie is a must see. It's very witty, there are lots of jokes that reference the original series, but they are somewhat subtle. Directed by JJ Abrams this film definitely captures the excitement from the original series in an updated way. I think the most exciting part of the film was seeing Leonard Nimoy comprise his original role as Spock. He still has what it takes. The scene where future Spock meets current Spock was laugh out loud funny. Major points go to Zachary Quinto for pulling off Spock in a manner that I think old Leo himself was impressed by. Young Sulu, Chekhov and Scottie are near perfection. One of my favorite lines in a Star Trek movie is said by Checkhov: "Take me to your nuclear wessels." While they don't use this line exactly there is a scene or two of Chekhov trying to say the letter V.

So in the end I say definitely watch this one. It's a little long, so it is probably perfect for a rainy Saturday. I wouldn't tell you to run out and buy it, it's not the kind of movie you watch over and over. If you haven't seen it yet, and you like the idea of Star Trek even a little bit, put this version on your list of rainy day movies.