Okay, I finally got around to fetching this movie off my desk and watching it.  I have to say up front, I’ve never really been a Star Trek fan.  I thought the original series was rather boring; I watched some episodes of Next Generation, but didn’t really get into it; and I never watched any of the subsequent shows, such as Deep Space Nine, Voyager,or Enterprise.  The bits and pieces I’ve seen of the theatrical films, I didn’t care for them.  So depending on how you look at it, I’m either the perfect person to review J.J. Abrams reboot, or the very worst.  Maybe both.

The 2009 film opens with a Romulan ship emerging from a storm in space, or maybe it’s a wormhole, I don’t think I really caught that scrap of info.  The ship is captained by the very mad, the very seething and upset, Nero.  The irate Romulan asks the captain and crew of the Federation starship that has met him the whereabouts of one Mr. Spock.  They don’t know him, most likely because he hasn’t been born yet.  So Nero kills the Federation captain once he comes aboard and then destroys the Federation ship.  Among the survivors of the carnage is the very pregnant wife of newly promoted, and briefly in command, George Kirk.  Just before he goes down with the starship, George witnesses his sons birth on the escape vessel and helps to name him James Tiberius Kirk.


All grown up, James enters the Starfleet Academy where he butts heads with Spock and where he also gets his groove on with a green skinned hottie, which isn’t as freaky as it sounds (at least not to me).  While being brought up on charges for cheating on his tests by Spock, no less, Kirk is brought aboard the Enterpriseby Bones on its maiden voyage to investigate the destructive disturbances occurring on Vulcan.  It seems Nero has popped up again, setting his sights to destroy Vulcan and Earth since Spock, at some point in the future, destroyed his planet.

I’m going to admit I don’t think I followed everything that went on in Star Trek.  I’m sure I missed some plot points.  I’m sure I missed a couple of logical explanations the film put forth about its plot.  Whatever I missed, and whatever I don’t really understand about the story, it doesn’t keep Star Trek from being a really good science fiction action/adventure film.  There are a couple of draggy moments towards the end, but overall I liked it and recommend it.  I wasn’t expecting it to be so funny, actually, or so entertaining.  I don’t know what the die-hard Trekkies think of it, but I do look forward to a sequel.

4 out of 5
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