OK, so it’s finally here. But is it any good? I think it is. But there were some parts I was REALLY not sure about. But here’s the thing: This movie is going to make a lot of people angry and a lot of people happy. Which will you be? KINDA SPOILER ALERT BUT NOT REALLY. The thing is, the movie is being promoted as an origin tale. But it really isn’t. That’s right, it’s not. It’s more of an “Elseworlds” comic. The entire Star Trek timeline is destroyed thanks to a time traveling Romulan miner, Eric Bana with prison tats, a grudge, and the Shadow ship from “Babylon 5”. So there you go. J.J. Abrams told Star Trek purists to “stay home” so he is most certainly expecting an electronic nerd shitstorm. But on a side note: Hey J.J. and the LOST crew (yes, I saw your names on the credits too): Let’s give the time travel thing a rest, shall we? It’s getting a bit played out. So there you go. Love it or hate it. Now where the movie really, really shines is the characters and casting. Unlike Battlestar Galactica’s unimaginative character reimagining, these characters are absolutely true to the original characters and the audience was applauding when they each one of them first came on screen in their introduction scenes. Abrams and friends got this absolutely spot on. You really felt like you were watching younger versions of these beloved characters. Zachary Quinto as Spock was fantastic (but it was hard to forget Syler) as was Chris Pine as an all-id Kirk. Simon Pegg and all the others were perfect as well. It was good to see Leonard Nimoy too. And he had more screen time than I thought he would. There were lots of nods to the old series which was fun, but mainly it never felt like the property was being plundered or ruined. This movie was made by people who understood the source material and were fans. I’m sure some people will disagree. But isn’t that cool? SCI FI art is stimulating a passionate nerdversation. Let the message boards light up! The filmmakers took a chance on the franchise and made some bold changes. While I didn’t love the destruction of the Star Trek timeline, I have to give them props for having the balls to do it. Sure the plot gets messy and convoluted, as all time travel bullshit does. But you can forgive it when the nostalgia washes over you as you watch all of these younger actors channel the characters we have loved for decades now. But if you come down on the side of the fence that hates this movie, at least you can be secure in the knowledge that it was at least better than “Star Trek: Generations”. God, what a piece of shit that movie was. Kirk dies by falling off a scaffolding. Wow. Great job, fellas. You would think Shatner’s huge ego would have prevented him from filming that scene. And for once, he would have been right. So now we have old characters that are new again but we also have a clean story and continuity slate and I think that was the intention. But I wonder if it was really necessary. Can’t you have an origin movie without destroying the actual origins? Taking in the whole package, I liked it. It was a successful reboot and J.J. Abrams deserves a lot of credit for taking a loaded, creative landmine and turning it into… into… something you step on and it doesn’t blow up. I don’t know, I’m out of metaphors. Bottom line is that it’s a fresh, fun reboot with energy and style. Will there be a next one? Of course there will. And I will be looking forward to it. But one final request: Abrams—Shatner—work your shit out. I give you a lot of credit, J.J., you gave the fans at least half of what we were asking for with this movie. Now give us the other half.
—Chris Mancini
