स्टार ट्रेक

I was one of the few lucky fans who attended the Sydney premiere and my impression was "Wow!" The use of a well known Roddenberry plot device to reset the franchise was a brilliant idea and means the franchise can now move forward without the "FANS" shouting "canon!" The movie itself was brilliantly cast and performed with each actor being enough like the original to be believable in the role without the over the top acting that was part of TV when it all began in the 1960's.The special effects are top notch.

Its a film which you can take anyone who enjoys sci-fi to, not just someone who knows the last 40+ years of Trek.

So what level of fan am I? I own 3 costumes, attend conventions and appear in "Trekkies 2", and yet loved Enterprise because from the first episode I simply said its was in an alternate universe, its the same but different. I view this film in the same light, same but different.

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.

I am proud to call my self a Trekkie, I attend conventions, dress up and I even have "Live Long and Prosper" tattooed on my back. My family however, despite my best efforts, will watch the occasional episode but have never embraced the Star Trek world as I have. My husband took me along to the premier of Star Trek in London last night and thank you JJ you converted him in one film, I have been trying for 25 years! What JJ Abrams has done is create a film that can be enjoyed by all, its irrelevant whether or not you have seen Star Trek before, this film stands alone as brilliant entertainment. There are plenty of references to the original series to keep the fans happy. Of course there are going to be the "hard core" fans who will criticize certain aspects. I enjoyed seeing the lead actors imitate the characteristics of the original crew, Karl Urban as Dr Mcoy was particularly good. Good story line, plenty of humour, non-stop fast action, fantastic special effects, great acting from all the main "crew", Zacchary Quinto and Chris Pine especially. Can't wait for the next one to see more in-depth character development (of all the characters, not just Kirk and Spock and a moral dilemma which is at the heart of the best Star Trek. Film fans are going to love this film and that means Star Trek Lives Long and Prospers!

For folks who dissed this movie, and the second, because it wasn't the Star Trek of yester year, get over it. Roddenbury rolling over in his grave? Oh, please. The events in the first movie somehow made all the other off-shoots impossible? Yikes! How does anything in this movie affect the series with Piccard, Janeway, etc.? Give it a break, eh?

Yeah, both movies had some corny lines and one or two ridiculous scenarios (Spock and Uhura making out?), but the first two movies in this reboot were great fun. The actors were brilliant even when their lines weren't, the action decent. Was either movie award-worthy? No, but not every movie has to be in order to enjoy it. I wasn't disappointed. Both kept me very well entertained. Sometimes it's good just to sit back, relax, enjoy, and not take everything so damn seriously.

Now, the third installment is altogether another matter. While it did have its moments, it was really terribly written. There is a limit to how much even good actors can do with pervasively bad lines, and how much slop a viewer can put up with. And if Hollywood doesn't stop with their "wokeness", I think I'll have to stick with foreign flicks.

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!