Now Playing: Star Trek

Caveat: I don't think I've ever watched a full episode of the original Star Trek series, but I am a big fan of ST:TNG. In fact, I don't really like the James T. Kirk character at all (and no, I'm not projecting my feelings about Will Shatner, whom I love). Long story short: I wasn't expecting much as a fan, but I was looking forward to a lot of things blowing up.

...And blow up they did. We start Star Trek in media res, with star ships exploding and lightning storms in space and there's really very little downtime from there. In terms of action, I have no complaints whatsoever. The effects didn't seem overly processed and, despite some complaints of excessive lens flares, I thought it worked. I particularly liked the manual throttle for warping - it was a nice combo of future and contemporary.

The casting was equally exceptional. I don't think there is a single choice with which I disagree. I think Spock and Kirk were real standouts, but favourites were Chekov, Bones and Scotty. Even Eric-Fucking-Bana didn't prove to be too much of a distraction; however, when the script called for "emotion" he did disintegrate into a squawk instead of doing justice to a Khan homage. I won't let him ruin the movie for me - casting was stellar.

Scripting - given their choice of time travel (always with the time travel) - was pretty tight. They've essentially rebooted the series without having to answer to the legions of trekkers that would have, I don't know, flailed their arms at conventions until someone got a scratch. I won't really dwell on it other than to say that I think, if done right, time travel can work (as Abrams is proving elsewhere). I really liked some of the other choices he's made: the Uhura-Spock dynamic, the death of Kirk senior and even the addition of Keenser, who undoes all the damage that other one ever did. I enjoyed that it was as funny as it was serious - I laughed more times than I thought I would and it didn't feel inappropriate.

All in all, a great movie, for fans and non-fans alike. 4 out of 5 stars.