Star Trek

J.J. Abrams has done it yet again. His rendition of the cult sci-fi phenomenon, Star Trek is nothing short of brilliant!
The Star Trek fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry includes six television series including the original 1966 Star Trek, and eleven feature films. The franchise also extends to dozens of computer and video games, hundreds of novels and instances of fan fiction, several fan-created video productions, as well as a themed attraction in Las Vegas.
The 11th movie in the colossal Star Trek franchise is a prequel depicting the origins of the original crew of the USS Enterprise from the 1960s TV series albeit the movie focuses primarily on the back-stories of the captain, James T. Kirk (chris Pine) and his first officer, Spock (zachary Quinto). The other crew members include Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (Siomon Pegg), Pavel Chekov(Anton Yelchin) and Hikaru Sulu (John Cho).
The movie is in essence a reboot induced by a time travel accident involving a Romulan, Captain Nero(Eric Bana) and an elderly Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Although Time Travel is not necessarily a spectacularly original concept, this reboot makes for a very good story telling approach. Not only does it introduce a new arc in the stories of our protagonists compared to those featured in previous movies and the TV series, but also provides the producers a great excuse to revamp the entire franchise!
This movie highlights the emotional facet of Spock, something that is not easily visible in the series or earlier movies. Spock's love for his parents, especially his human mother, is endearing and Quinto manages in fact succeeds in portraying this rather beautifully. Kirk's reckless and cynical personality is equally well portrayed by Pine. Also noteworthy is that this Kirk is not as philosophical as the one portrayed by William Shatner. Spock represents the reason and logic whereas Kirk is the embodiment of gung-ho action. The chemistry between these two opposites has been captured well on screen.
Abrams has a few signature sequences in the movie that echo his style of fast paced action with interesting camera perspectives. These include Kirk's birth in space, The car chase sequence involving the younger Kirk and the space dive with Sulu and Kirk, all of which will keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Touted as perhaps the best Star Trek movie yet, the latest flick is a welcome revival to the age old franchise. With the last few Star Trek movies and series not performing well (in fact both the recent series and movie resurrections were considered complete failures), a lot was riding on the success of this one. Abram's Star Trek has received universal acclaim and has been a box-office success raking in over $150 million globally. There are even talks of a possible sequel with the new cast.
For this Trekkie the final frontier just got a lot more interesting!