Yet Another New, Improved Enterprise

I've never been quite as big a Star Trek geek as I could be. Yes, I've seen all of the original show's episodes and all the movies, but there are entire series that I haven't seen an episode of.

But, that being said, I was saddened when Paramount decided to shutter the movie franchise seven years ago. And I was excited when J.J. Abrams decided to bring it back (because, quite frankly, it was about time someone who wasn't Jonathan Frakes got to direct one). And I was not really all that disappointed.

I like that there were some nice shoutouts to the past , like Kirk cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test, Rachel Nichols' turn as a green-skinned Orion cadet, the mind-controlling slugs, the fact that they actually kept Kirk an Iowa native and kept Starfleet in San Francisco. It's also the first time that we get to see first-hand how the "classic" crew got together.

Of course, die-hard fans will balk at the fact that the movie takes some liberties with Star Trek dogma, like Vulcan being destroyed, and Spock's mother along with it, Captain Pike not ending up in that box with the flashing light, and Chekov being along on the Enterprise's maiden voyage (and where's his Davy Jones wig?). But the movie cleverly places this Star Trek in an alternate timeline, created by time-traveling Romulans. Sure, it messes with the canon, but it creates all-new story possibilities (a neat trick, that).

The movie itself is a mixed bag. The fact that it's all new actors playing all the roles (except for Leonard Nimoy, who plays Future Spock) kinda disconnects it from the other movies. A lot of the action scenes seem to exist just because the screenplay called for an action scene at that point. And I haven't seen this much intentional lensflare in a movie since Close Encounters of the Third Kind; it's almost blinding at times.

But, for all it's bad points, it's still a Star Trek movie, and a flawed Star Trek movie is better than none at all.

BTW, this film is the 11th in the series, which should technically make it one of the "bad" odd-numbered films, but I think that whole thing went out the window when the "awful" 10th movie, Star Trek: Nemisis, killed the franchise. Feel free to voice your opinion of what constitutes a "good" Star Trek in the "Best Star Trek Movie" poll.