I saw the new Star Trek movie last night. It is fantastic. I can’t imagine (in spite of what some have been saying) that devoted fan of the original series will not love it. Star Trek had parallel universes and alternate time lines built into it all along, and so tinkering with the “canonical history” is less of an issue than in the case of rebooting Battlestar Galactica – or even making a movie that tinkers with Lord of the Rings.
The movie is also accessible to newcomers (although if you want to introduce pre-teen kids to Trek, wait for the movie to be on TV, since there are some scenes/words that are not for that age group). This is not because it has been dumbed down, but simply because it manages to combine classic Star Trek with more modern-looking special effects and equipment than 60s-era Starfleet issue appears to modern viewers, and to tell a compelling story about the characters, taking us into a period before the first episode of classic Trek and give us a chance to know this timeline’s version of them. And as we know from that other effort from J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, backstories can be compelling. But the younger versions of the familiar characters really do take seriously the attempt to be those same characters we know and love – and Spock and McCoy are particularly enjoyable to watch if you know the original series.
I won’t say more. Just see it. You’ll enjoy it.
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