Star Trek - back from the dead

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2009)

As the director himself stated, doing a new version of Star Trek is fraught with land mines - there is a reasonably large fan base that cannot be alienated, and yet the film must have a fresh approach to to entice those outside the fan base.
In this regards, the film succeeds very, very well. In this movie, we have been introduced to legendary characters who we have pre-conceived notions, and yet the directors and producers have managed to break with the past by establishing a new timeline, as it were, in this Trek universe, thereby freeing this new series from the burdens of having to follow the old, classic series.
Sure, there are throw away references to the old series in a kind of, wink, wink, nudge, nudge way. For example, early in the film Kirk is making it with a green skinned alien - part of the somewhat humorous legend and lore of Kirk. We get the classic lines - Bone's classic "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a physicist" returns. We are introduced to Capt. Pike, who is eventually confined to wheel chair after being horribly burned.
Still, this is not the Trek of old. Vulcan is destroyed, Spock's mom is killed. Roddenberry's approach was to present his Captians as cool, consummate professionals, which was (largely) followed by the original Kirk and Piccard. This Kirk is much more temperamental. Spock in the original series is shown as virtually without emotions (one exception - original series A'mok Time, when Spock seems positively overjoyed to see that Kirk is alive). Spock and Uhura seem to have a thing going one. There are some more obvious sexual innuendo comments going on.
Some minor quibbles. I had the feeling I saw Capt. Noah's Romulian ship somewhere else. The set didn't make sense to me - lot's of wasted space (from the acknowledgments at the end, I hazard a guess that much of it was filmed in a brewery somewheres).
I recommend it highly - it's not a 10/10, it's not meant to be. Still, although the film is NOT high art, it's a return to basic Trek - lots of adventure, lots of action, and relatively flat characters - Space Opera, pure and simple. I enjoyed it (and I am obviously a Trek fan), my wife enjoyed it (and she is not a huge Trek fan). So, go!