Yeah, I’m a geek with a blog, so I pretty much have to tell you what I think about the new Star Trek movie, right?
I liked it.
Actually, I liked it quite a lot.
Lots of other places will give you all the talk that I could about the way the cast really works well together, or how the visuals are amazing, and all that other stuff. I agree with it, though I’d like to relate the following discussion between my friend, Chris, and I as we sat in the theatre:
Chris: Count the lens flairs. I think that’s going to be the new geek drinking game.
Me: Okay.
Me, three minutes into the movie: I’ve already lost count.
Me, thirty minutes into the movie: If this is the new geek drinking game, the geeks will be dead of alcohol poisoning before the Enterprise reaches Vulcan.
Still looked great, though. And for the first time, the Enterprise (and other Federation ships) actually had interiors that made them look like functioning vessels.
But that wasn’t the stuff that really sold me on the movie, much as I enjoyed it. I’m going to be rather oblique in the next few paragraphs in order to avoid spoilers.
What I really liked was the way they took chances with the story, making some big changes to the Star Trek universe in an effort to build a firm foundation for the franchise to continue*. It was a risk, a huge risk, given the entrenched fandom and following that Star Trek has**, and the number of those fans who are heavily invested in the continuity of the franchise, in all its incarnations***. If J.J. Abrams had made a misstep with how he handled those changes, if the movie had been not quite as good, it could have blown up in Paramount’s collective metaphorical face.
He didn’t, though.
He treated the deviations from pre-established canon with the understanding and explanation they deserved. He made the big changes big on screen, showing an awareness of what he was doing, and what he owed the legacy of Star Trek. And he dealt with the ramifications and fallout from those changes in a way that left me feeling, “Wow. It’s all new again. I wonder what they’re going to do next?”
Hell, he made me want to run a Star Trek game.
I’m going to go see it again, maybe one evening this week, maybe this weekend.
Maybe both. I liked it that much.
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*I almost said, “firm foundation for the franchise to unfold,” but that would have just pushed the alliteration over the brink.
**The Onion had a neat little segment on it.
***Fans like me, in other words.