Loved every minute of it.

Rating: 10/10 (4 July 2009)

I have never been into Star Trek. I loved and still do love Star Wars. However I am a big JJ Abrams fan and I liked Zachary Quinto a lot too so for these reasons alone I was interested.
Within the first two minutes I was enthralled.... within the first ten I had my jaw on the floor and it stayed there for the most of the movie. It seems an odd contradiction for the Lost man- a series that moves so slow to come up with such a fast paced sci fi film. It felt as if all my gripes with Star Trek were instantly fixed. One of the reasons i d never been able to get into Star Trek was the characters- they seemed too distant - too remote somehow to root for. Another thing about Star Trek is the ridiculous techno babble and the fact that it seems sometimes so boring and very little to do with space adventuring at all... I always thought that the opening sequences of the Star Trek series were great- vast vistas of space and planets- it created a real sense of wonder and awe - and then the show would start and it would be 4 actors in a room talking a load of balls. With Abrahms Star Trek this is nt the case. The character s of Kirk and Spock are conflicted and both in their own way rebellious. The opening is breathtaking and the wow factor is maintained throughout the film. This could not be boring if it tried. Yet as good as the action is the core of the film is about the character s and their struggles which I think a lot of other blockbuster films such as Transformers miss. Also another thing I found offputting about Star Trek originally was the po faced ness of it all. Yet Abrahms Star Trek has many great comedic moments that help lighten the tone without going over the top. The tone of the film I loved - it was optimistic and bucked the trend of dark and gloomy blockbusters. Don't get me wrong I love those too- but Star Trek felt genuinely entertaining in a way that few recent blockbusters have managed to do. There were flaws - the story does fall apart on close inspection, and the bad guy Nero was way underused. But it s to Star Trek s credit that I really did nt notice or care too much, I was having so much fun with this movie. Even though I am no Star Trek fan I am glad that Abrahms managed to side step the usual reboot trap by setting it in an alternate timeline. This will mean hopefully old Trekkies will still like it. There seemed to be lots of lines that Trekkies
were supposed to recognise - not being a Star Trek fan i did nt of course but I m sure the Die Hard Trekkies would get a kick out of those.
Overall I loved this movie and I have to admit that I wish the Star Wars Prequels could have been this funny and entertaining.