To Boldly Go....

WARNING: The entry below contains spoilers. If you have not yet seen Star Trek, read no further than the first paragraph.

This evening I went to see Star Trek with Deanna and Sue. Have already seen some of the previews, my hopes were high. I had read from one friend that it was THE Star Trek movie to see, and seeing as how it was directed by Lost's Executive Producer J.J. Abrams, what could go wrong? Not much, apparently. The movie was fantastic, though in my opinion, not perfect. The best way I can describe it is an almost flawless masterpiece. The acting, directing, casting, camera work, special effects, etc were all excellent... I could go on and on. Even the plot and the script was pretty good, especially the rich dialogue. It was interesting enough to engage the non-"trekkie" audience, while full of references that caused the hard-core trekkies, and even the casual fans on occasion, to laugh out loud, or at least let a very non-vulcan grin sneak into our faces.

SPOILERS AHEAD... Do not read unless you have seen the movie or don't intend to!!!




The only beef I have with the movie was with the plot and concerned my own expectations. Halfway through the movie we discover that the current timeline is actually an alternate dimension-- time as he know it has been altered to reflect a universe where Kirk's father is dead and Kirk entered the Academy as a much more rebellious cadet than before, as if that was even possible. (I should admit that I should have caught on to the changed timeline at the beginning when Kirk's future references to his father's influence no longer making sense as his father died before our eyes...) While this is not a bad thing in its own, I was eagerly anticipating the meeting of James T. Kirk with Mr. Spock and seeing how the two became the friends that they were. I wanted to see the beginnings of Star Trek. Because it was an alternate timeline, I was dissappointed in this one aspect of the plot, but, as I stated earlier, the extremely well-made movie made up for the setback. Everything from the casting to the cameras was done in perfect taste and was a fitting tribute to the franchise.