Star Trek is alive and well!

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2009)

** WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS ** I just went to a mystery pre-screening at Greater Union, and am absolutely thrilled to be able to say that:
(a) Yes, it was Star Trek! (b) Star Trek is officially alive and well!
With full credit to the decades of Star Trek that have come before this movie, I find myself forced to admit that I have never been so stoked or electrified by a Star Trek production in all my time as I was coming out of JJ's latest feature. While I must admit that I don't have that sense of being immersed in a deep moral issue in the way that so many Star Treks have done in the past, it's possible that those feelings have simply been overwhelmed by the excitement and rich plot that this wonderful picture boasts.
I'm not going to sit here and try to analyse each sub-component of the movie. The cast, plot, special effects, music and direction were all top notch, and - put together (which is what really counts) - they have produced a feast for the senses as well as the intellect.
What I will comment on in particular was an aspect that I hope many people will notice and appreciate - the realism and appreciation of physics that gives a credibility that is often lacking in space-based science fiction. A hole is torn in the hull of a ship, with an ensuing vaccuum that tears a screaming ensign from where she is holding on for dear life and throws her out into the void of space. As she passes the edge of the breach in the hull, the sound is choked off in an instant and replaced with nothing but the eerie silence of space. It is frightening and stirring, and I anticipate future space-based sci-fi taking this route. This is just one of the ways that this new Star Trek has been yanked forward and steeped in an unforgiving reality, but one that many fans and friends alike have clamoured for over the years.
I feel that I could sit here and talk about this movie forever, but rather than spoil any more I'll just summarise by saying that - for me - this movie has reinvented the Star Trek universe in so many ways, and I cannot wait to see what can be made of it. While I wait, I will rest content in the knowledge that Star Trek no longer simply holds the crown for thoughtful, moral cinema, but excitement and thrills as well.
10/10 for a movie that I cannot think of ways to improve.