Among the Best Star Trek Films

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2009)

While I grew up watching Star Trek reruns and movies, I have not watched anything to do with Star Trek in a decade. My ten year old son has never seen Star Trek and had no desire to see this movie. I took him anyway. Now he wants to rent all of the previous films.
This film does a fantastic job of telling an origins story that is much different than most people probably guessed it would be, yet at the same time remains true to the original mythology. Somehow the movie maintains a perfect balance of familiarity and unpredictability. Combine that with updated visual effects and intense action sequences, and this movie becomes a highly entertaining character study that deserves repeat viewings.
Only one thing really irritated me about this movie. The plot is so complicated that the movie makers felt it necessary to explain in narrative during a Vulcan mind meld halfway through the film. I felt like I was being treated like a kid since the movie did not trust my intelligence enough to supply enough information for me to fill in the blanks. Instead, the filmmakers resort to explicitly telling me exactly what is going on. I resented those few moments.
Still, the movie was much better than I expected it to be.