Star Trek (2009)

In 2007, the world heard the announcement that J.J. Abrams was signed to direct the reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Like many Star Trek fans, I waited with skepticism as details trickled out. With the announcement of the much younger cast, the skepticism started to edge towards doubt. Then in January of 2008, we started to see glimpses of the movie from teaser trailers, thus steering away from doubt and more towards curiosity. Upon seeing the film, curiosity became full-on excitement. So much so, that I already knew I was going to like the movie by the time the Star Trek title showed up on the screen.

Without spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet, the plot roughly is about the creation of the Enterprise crew Star Trek fans have come to love. However, as a reboot of the franchise, it takes a few things in a slightly different direction.

With J.J. Abrams both directing and producing, the film kept a constant pace while maintaining everyone interest and attention. Thanks to the writing, the story manages to creatively start the franchise over with minor changes while keeping with key points of the entire Star Trek universe. There are even a number of parts in the movie that will please hardcore Trek fans that reference the classic as well as the more obscure Trek lore. As for the visual effects, none of them take away your attention from the story and are done very well.

While I won’t point out each cast member and how well they did, suffice it to say, each one revitalized their character without making it a caricature of the previous cast’s versions.

If it’s not already obvious, I fully recommend this movie to both hardcore fans and newcomers to the Star Trek universe. Without hesitation, I give J.J Abrams’ first Star Trek film (with a few more hopefully on the way) our highest rating.