Definitely worth the trek, this movie will make stars of its brilliant young cast!

Rating: 6/10 (10 May 2009)

Star Trek Director: J.J. Abrams Country: USA Year: 2009 Language: English Runtime: 126 Minutes Rating: 15A
I remember the first time I saw automatic sliding doors, doors that opened when you walked towards them. It was in the new Quinnsworth in Tralee, in the mid 1980's, I was about 10 years old and I thought they were amazing!
The only place I had ever seen sliding doors before was on Star Trek, which by the mid 1980's was a decidedly nerdy and old, television show. Fans of the TV series, and there are countless millions of them out there, hold this up as proof of the brilliance of the show and of the show's creator, Gene Rodenberry. They also say that Rodenberry's wireless communications on board the Star Ship Enterprise gave Marty Cooper, a young Star Trek fan that grew up to become a chief engineer at Motorola, the impetus to invent the first ever mobile phone, a claim that Cooper upheld in a recent documentary.
When Star Trek first appeared on television way back in 1966, many people doubted Rodenberry's genius. In fact the series wasn't that terribly successful and was cancelled after just three years in 1969. Despite this, in 1976 fans of the series started a letter writing campaign and NASA's original Space Shuttle was named 'Enterprise' after the ship on Star Trek, while scientists from Steven Hawking to Bill Gates are fans.
So there's no real doubting the passion and brilliance of the fans. There have been a further 5 series and 10 movies and almost too many books and comics to mention but I, for one, have never been a Trekkie, so it was with some trepidation that I ventured to see the latest Star Trek offering from J.J. Abrams, creator of LOST.
Abrams boldly goes where no man has gone before, creating a story which explains the genesis of the original crew – so Kirk, Spock, Scotty and all the rest are back, but as we've never seen them before. The film tells the incredible story of the young crew's maiden voyage on board the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits have to find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind.
There's a little twist in that the fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of Kirk and Spock who are bitter rivals in this movie. James T. Kirk is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy while Spock was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. They're Yin and Yang but as fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger.
So does it work? I think it does – brilliantly! JJ Abrams has created something as amazing as sliding doors! He honours the original creation while fashioning a film that the movie going masses will also embrace and in the process creates a movie for hard core fans and the general public alike. It's a movie for anyone that likes movies!