Star Trek

Was pretty disappointed with how much I enjoyed the new Star Trek film. Was upset when I originally heard about the idea because it seems so unoriginal, bringing back Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto), and McCoy (Karl Urban) when so many new characters could have been created, forged, manufactured. Doesn't really seem like they're going where no one has gone before anyway; kind of seems like a number of Trekkian franchises went belly-up and in order not to lose sight of the genus, they returned to that genus's very genus, decadently exploding their genesis device, kind of a like a lazy, mundane cash grab. But at least the cash grab is thoroughly entertaining: wait 'till you see how Captain James T. Kirk was born. They certainly didn't slack on the script and characters like Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are reborn with much more depth than they ever had in the original series (they actually have personalities [or are at least intellectually gifted] and at one point Sulu even saves Kirk's life). I'm growing rather tired of how many times time travel is used as the plot device upon which the narrative twirls in Star Trek films but it's used again and wow are all things Star Trek ever turned upside down (we are seriously starting over again from ground zero). The script goes a bit haywire with Spock's emotions: this version of Spock is much easier to upset than his predecessor which is somewhat terrific. Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana) could have been more dastardly although script writers probably didn't want to make him too dynamic due to his working class origins. A lot of the film is downright implausible: impossible situation after impossible situation finds a split second solution that saves the day and sets up the next set of sensational circumstances. And the whole 'born leader' thing is kind of annoying. But like I said, I enjoyed it, it's fun to watch fantastic science fiction, a solid reworking of the franchise, nice.