Star Trek

Star Trek. When someone speaks this name, various images, ideas, characters and phrases come to mind. I know they certainly do with me. Characters such as Kirk, Spock, Picard, Data, Janeway, Seven of Nine; ideas like the prime directive; phrases like "Live long and Prosper", "Good God Jim, I'm a doctor not a….". I wouldn't consider myself a "Trekkie", but I do have a deep affection for this series and world.

To my great delight, I was fortunate enough to see an advanced screening last night of JJ Abrams re-imaging of "Star Trek". I must admit that I was skeptical at first about taking such iconic characters and recasting them, even in younger iterations, because most people think of the characters of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov with the actors that originally portrayed them. These portrayals are engrained in the pop culture consciousness of the world and hence my skepticism arose. Fortunately, my doubts were unnecessary.

This is not your father's "Star Trek". From the moment the movie begins, so does the action and it never lets up. However, this movie has more than just incredible and intense action, it also pays homage to the series of old. Sure, they wanted to bring us a Trek for the 21st century, but they also realized that they needed to respect the source material and fans of a series that has been around more than 40 years. However, you don't need to know much about Star Trek to enjoy this movie. Each character has been given a background and history that lets you know a little something about each one. There's a lot to be told in an origin movie and it is handled deftly by both the writers and the director.

But, what really made the movies for me were the actors chosen to play these roles, especially Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock and Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, aka "Bones". This movie would not have worked if the casting of these three characters had not been spot on. Both Mr. Quinto and Urban uncannily channel their predecessors, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley. They took on some of their inflections, mannerisms and expressions to really give you a sense that they are just younger versions of the originals. Chris Pine, however, takes on the most memorable role in Trek history and makes it his own. This Kirk is not only the womanizer, lover, and captain that you already know, but as portrayed by Mr. Pine also has a swagger, bravado, intelligence, and is a complete adrenaline junkie. We could not have asked for a better Kirk in this movie.

They have laid a solid foundation for a new series, with new life, perfect cast and a director with a true vision. If the first movie can be this good, my expectations for further adventures have risen exponentially.

This is my first review for our website and as such might not be very good since I have no experience at writing reviews. I intentionally didn't reveal any plot points so as to not spoil anything for whoever may read this. I may in the future reveal areas that may have spoilers but mark these sections so you can skip over them. I'll be seeing Wolverine tomorrow and hope to have a review up by tomorrow night. Until we meet again, "Live long and Prosper!"

There was no way that this reboot was going to avoid all references to either the original series of Star Trek or the other spin-off series - anyone going in to see this film had to accept that as a given. But any cheesy bits (of which there were relatively few) are blown away by the sheer beauty and bravado of this film.

I was a fairly big Trekkie in my youth, but in the last 10 years only really kept up with it by watching a few new episodes here and there and seeing the big screen outings (OK, I admit that I have all 10 films on special edition DVD - £47 was a bargain!) - but Abrams' vision here has me thinking the new franchise will be even better than what has come before.

What made this film special for me was not the story (remarkably good, bearing in mind that, like the first film in any new franchise, it's backbone was character development). What made this film for me was the....photography? Can you even call CGI photography? Well, either way, this film was a visual feast. The way that scale was conveyed was breath-taking. I'm not sure whether I read this somewhere or if I can take credit for it myself, but the difference came in the way that Abrams shoved aside the traditional Star Trek view of Enterprise as a lumbering naval ship and took a more Star Wars-esquire dogfight approach. This has set a high standard for a new era of Star Trek that I hope will spawn at least a couple more films.

It's not that I wasn't impressed with the character development, the acting, the script or the story - it's just that this film looked so gorgeous that I haven't been able to think of anything else since I saw it last night! But sufficed to say, this was overall an excellent feature. It might not quite deserve a 100% rating, but it's worth more than 90% in my eyes - so, by rounding up, it gets 10/10 from me! Final warning: see this film in the cinema. Do not wait for it to come out on DVD. It. Will. Not. Do. It. Justice.

JJ, you've won a fan!

I haven't seen the original Star Trek but it has a reputation for being heavy on the technobabble and continuity lockout. This film is an attempt to remake it closer to a traditional Hollywood blockbuster and it works. It is easy to follow and full of exciting action, though I can't compare it with the original.

As someone with a longstanding fondness for most things Trek (I've seen most of the movies and quite a few of the shows), I have to say that JJ & Co did a fine job with this picture; the character dynamics were broadly satisfying, the action scenes entertaining and the set pieces well put together. Most of all I was impressed with the lightness of touch of the whole venture - it would be very easy to criticise the picture for making what could be considered significant changes to certain parts of Trek lore, but given that the changes were accomplished with such comfort and confidence makes them, in my view, perfectly acceptable.

With regards to the acting characterisation, everyone was pretty much solid, with perhaps the exception of Sulu, who I thought didn't have much to do. Kudos, though, to Zoe Saldana's loveliness as Uhura and also, especially, to Chris Pine as Kirk - I had always thought Spock was my favourite character, but it looks like I may have to reassess; Pine lives and breathes that Kirk moxie exquisitely and he'll be great fun to watch in future instalments.

With regards to plot, it's pretty good; there is a decent sense of internal logic to it, without it being too overwrought. True, there are a number of points where you might think, "Blimey, that's serendipitous," but as I'd already suspended my disbelief to accept the possibility of time travelling green-blooded alien from the planet Vulcan, these things really didn't bother me at all. Plus there were a number of points in the movie where they were saying, "We were pulling this kind of shtick 20+ years ago, and you loved it then; run with us on this one," and I was happy to.

Oh, and most importantly of all, the movie is fun; it has the good sense to not take itself too seriously, despite remaining well aware of that sense of pomp and importance that all great character dramas should have, and that isn't a bad thing at all.

How this movie will bear up to repeat viewings, I'm not certain yet, but at the premiere, it was a blast.

Addendum: It's a month plus since I originally wrote this and I have seen the film three times in total now - the opening ten minutes remain a manipulative marvel that the remainder of the film struggles to match, the coincidences and conveniences seem even more far fetched than ever and the jokes seem even more silly BUT I still fancy seeing it again, so I guess it must work for me.

I have to confess to being one of those people who never thought they should 'reboot' the original Star Trek franchise. William Shatner and co were so engrained in their respective roles that I didn't think anyone could fill their exact shoes (even if they were supposed to be their younger selves).

I was wrong.

Star Trek (XI) is undoubtedly the best of the franchise since The Wrath of Khan. If follows the early years of the most famous crew in sci-fi history. Yes, every actor nails his or her character (possibly with the minor exception of Simon Pegg as Scotty, but that's a minor gripe). Also, this isn't just 'Star Trek The Early Years' - the story cleverly weaves in the old mythology - I won't say too much on that in case you're not aware of how it all plays out.

I will say that (if you can forgive JJ Abrams slightly overused 'lens flare effects') it is the most exciting of all the Trek movies. There's plenty of action and decent special effects. It doesn't quite rival Star Wars - it seems to be able to maintain its 'alternativeness' to the other great sci-fi franchise. It doesn't just breathe new life into the franchise (Star Trek X was a little disappointing), it makes 'Trek' accessible to the masses. If you don't know your Tribbles from your Borg, it really doesn't matter - this starts everything again and you don't need to know the backstory - you only need to be in for a good, popcorn-munching, sci-fi ride.

May this franchise live long and prosper.