To boldly attempt to please three generations

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2009)

Where does one begin to define a mission like this one? The mission being: take the combination of a long running TV-series and a series of films, loved by many and hated by just as many, and turn it into an interesting film. One can only blunder: the old guard loved the original series and hated the last series, the younger guard goes exactly the other way around. Or can one do a good job after all? I must consider myself one of the members of the old guard - I loved the original series (still do), and although I liked the second series it all went into a very steady decline after that. Filmwise it wasn't much better - the films with the original cast were all good (with one exception) and the first three films with the second cast were good too - after that it was all bad and even worse. Then came the series Enterprise and that just didn't hack it at all, worst stuff I've ever seen.
So when I saw the first trailers of this film I already saw Roddenberry turn around in his grave in my mind. My heart cried as they were working on the final destruction of my childhoods heroes. But I went to see the film - I wouldn't be able to deal with not having seen it, even if it was going to be bad. Nothing could have prepared me for the surprise I would be going through. As the film starts the first few moments started to proof my dread - but quickly that dread started to grow less and after about 15 minutes I felt what this film tried to do: use elements of the original series and elements of current day graphic eye candy and combine it into a stew of old and new that is at the same time completely different from all it ever was and completely the same. For me this combination was flawless - it was different enough to be a film on its own, and the same enough to allow me to reconnect to everything I once loved about the series. The explanation of things is a bit of a cliché but I'm guessing anything else would be even worse - once one tries to make a film after so many episodes of so many series and so many films one is bound to a set of events and therefore a set of limits. So, it's good. It's very good. It's a long breath of relief since parts 9 and 10 that more or less did their best to destroy the series.
8 out of 10 past heroes resurrected