Some misses, mostly hits - the franchise re-boot seems to have worked.

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2009)

JJ Abrams (Lost) breathes new life into the Star Trek franchise with this movie, blending action, suspense and character conflict with a number of time honored (pardon the pun) Trekkie conventions to satisfy old and new fans alike.
The film chronicles the start of the career of James Tiberius Kirk, along with the now famous crew who boldly went where no-one had gone before in the 1960's TV cult classic. Chris Pine borrows enough of Shatner's speech patterns to make the character seem familiar, but makes the role of the legendary Captain his own with a display that balances the characters determination and precociousness with energy and passion.
The story moves along at a fairly decent pace, although, it seemed to sag in the middle and in my opinion, became needlessly bogged down with the good ol' time travel nonsense. This is just one guy talking, but time travel is a concept this franchise should have jettisoned when it had the chance.
That aside, this film starts with a bang and keeps on delivering. There's some hits, and some misses, but it features plenty of action, some excellent performances and boasts a budget as big as a small country's total GDP. Whilst they pay their respects to the old timers with a tip of the hat to the previous movies and one welcome cameo from a Star Trek legend, this film is really all about the future. In creating a fresh, exciting look for the franchise, has Abrams achieved for Star Trek what Nolan did with Batman?
Full review here for those with an interest.
http://cinestuff.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/movie-review-star-trek/