movie minute

Ahead, Warp Speed: In the new Star Trek (PG-13) movie (the 11th in the film's franchise), director J.J Abrams (of Lost fame) doesn't remake the series but offers a compelling prequel to the characters we've come to know and love.

As the film opens, George Kirk is the captain of the S.S. Kelvin which is on a disastrous course with a Romulan ship led by Nero (Eric Bana).

Fast forward a bit and we see you Kirk (hotheaded and oozing self confidence) and Spock (intellectual little devil that he is) and the childhood they both experienced that until now we weren't privy to.

The movie is an exciting, special effects laden thrill of a ride. It has all of the famous characters (Sulu, Uhura, Chekhov, Scotty, McCoy, Kirk, Spock) and how they all came together to fly the Starship Enterprise.

The cast of the movie is impeccably chosen; especially Zachary Quinto as Spock. Tyler Perry (Medea himself) even shows up as Admiral Richard Barnett.

The only flaw this movie has is the whole time travel, time space continuum which involves the return of an original Trekkie. I kind of understood it but thought it was a bit indulgent. It's a theme that Abrams is quite fond of (hello, Lost!!!).

Having said that I thought Abrams did a kick-ass job of reigniting the moribund series and deserves a kudos for being true to the series as we've seen it so far. One thought, however, did Amanda Grayson (Spock's mother) really die? If so, then how did the original TV series bring her back from the dead? Yes, that was Winona Ryder playing Spock's mother, by the way. Perhaps she could be one of the featured stories in the next Star Trek movie, directed by Abrams of course.

I have never been a big fan of Star Trek but I did truly enjoy this movie. I give it 3 bags of popcorn (out of 5).

peace,

paul