So I guess I should honestly admit that I have yet to step into a theater to see this movie. I have a great deal of regret about that... I've been at opening day of every Trek film since Generations. But this time my stomach has been acting up so much its very difficult to sit for more than a few minutes without having to run to the bathroom. That would pretty much ruin any chance at enjoying such a costly form of entertainment.

Of course this is me we're talking about... I have in fact seen the movie three times at this point, and I'm totally stoked for the day it comes out on DVD. And the fact that it made enough money for Paramount to announce a sequel really makes me excited.

I guess I should start with the plot, as its the Trekker's plight to pick apart every movie or episodes plot. My first overall observation is the enormous respect Abrams paid to the continuity of the original series... In fact that there were things in there I'd never even thought of. From Scotty's love of food to Uhura's first name... The attention to detail was so remarkable, I don't believe I can think of a previous film that even paid that kind of respect. And yet, do we call this a remake or a reboot? Essentially the plot is that in the post-Voyager era (a time I have to admit I miss) Romulas is threatened by an impending supernova; Spock promises he can stop it with "red matter" (It's 2009 and its Star Trek, we just discovered dark matter in real life, they've got to come up with something) except the plan goes ary, Romulas is destroyed and Spock's ship is attacked by a Romulan miner named Nero. Spock detonates the red matter in order to stop the super nova, which somehow creates a black hole that sends Nero and Spock back in time, with a 25 year gap respectively. Nero emerges pre-TOS, as the USS Kelvin, with Kirk's mom (who is in the process of giving birth to Jim Kirk) and his father George (who I guess is first officer) encounter them. Nero demands the captain of the Kelvin come aboard for questioning (essentially the first Middle Eastern captain portrayed on Star Trek, though I would challange people to watch Star Trek 4 closely and question that). The captain goes aboard, making George Kirk captain. Nero attacks the Kelvin, Kirk's dad orders an evacuation as the ships auto control systems are knocked out. He orders his wife's shuttle to leave and listens over a communicator she's holding as she gives birth and he attacks Nero's ship. Nero knocks out the Kelvin's weapons and George Kirk sets a collision course with Nero's ship. He has just enough time to hear his son and tell his wife to name him after her dad before the Kelvin is destroyed. (and if you haven't guessed, it's Jim)

At this point the timeline has now changed. Kirk now grows up fatherless, rebellious and directionless. It takes an encounter with captain Pike, first captain of the Enterprise, to convince Kirk to join Starfleet. A scene that is in pretty much every trailer, so I'm not spoiling anything.

So essentially, from that point on, Abrams has preserved Trek history and yet written it anew with a new timeline, an alternate universe. And I'll just come out and say it, he pretty much punches it in the junk by destroying Vulcan and killing off Spock's mother. (And while concerned because she did have a somewhat important role in Star Trek 4, I was extremely pleased... The fact is, Wynona Ryder needs to die. I was very happy with that scene)

I did have two nitpicks with the plot. And not really the plot but things mentioned or shown in the whole thing. The first was the design of the Federation ships. While I definately like the direction they're going, Abrams really can't explain the deviation between these designs and the actual original series designs by the attack on the Kelvin point of time change, as the design of the Kelvin shared too many engine similarities with the Enterprise and none with the TOS Enterprise or the Enterprise from Star Trek: Enterprise, or even the Phoenix from First Contact. I can forgive this one though as anything from TOS would likely have to be sexed up for the big screen, and using Gabe Koerner's(an uber-famous Trek fan from Trekkies 1 and 2) concept design for a re-imagined Enterprise was a very nice courtesy to the fans I thought. Plus Gabe's right, they really needed to do something about the center of gravity on that thing.

The second qualm I have is when Spock (Zack Quinto) steps onto Spock's (Leonard Nemoy) ship and asks the computer to identify its manufacturing origin, and it says it was built on "Stardate 2387 by the Vulcan Science Academy." As all Trekkies know, the complexities of TOS Stardates are pretty much this... They are untrackable. Once the movies came around though, they roughly happened around Stardate 8000 something. And then with the inception of Star Trek The Next Generation, the production team firmly established a 5 digit number starting with four beginning in the first season of TNG and moving into 5 in following series, followed by the season number based on TNG... For example, Voyager ended on Stardate 54973.4, roughly 7 years after TNG ended. (which in reality I believe it did, it came out the next year right?) The calender year of the ending of Voyager was technically 2377. So if I were to assume that Spocks ship where actually built in 2387, technically something like eight years after Star Trek Nemesis, then the actual Stardate would have been 64376.71... A number that based on TOS numbers would likely have meant nothing to Spock. Therefore the use the word "Stardate" was a bit of a mistake. But I've searched the net, and so far I'm the only nerd that's noticed. *lol*

Anyway. Performances.

Jim Kirk- Chris Pine- Never heard of the guy till someone pointed out he was the dude from Princess Diaries 2... I won't forget him now. That said I don't think its possible to dublicate the pompous arrogance of William Shatner. But as far as Kirk the character goes, seeing this from the beginning perspective, Pine's performance is perfect.

Spock- Zack Quinto- I loved Zack as Sylar from Heroes all ready, seeing him as Spock really blows your mind. What Abrams wrote for his character was brilliant enough, but the way Zack pulls it off, absolutely brilliant.

Spock Prime - Leonard Nimoy- I was actually thrown a bit by his performance, but given Nimoy hasn't played the character in 18 years I'm not all that surprised. And if you take into account the last we knew of Spock was his attempts at reunification with the Romulans, Spock's overly emotional nature it seems, well it pretty much made sense. That aside when you look at his face this looks a lot more like a homecoming for Nimoy than actually pulling off his own character. But as Spock would say, it is acceptable.

Uhura- Like I said, the whole first name thing I'd never thought of. But the apparent romance between her and Spock... I didn't see that one coming.

Sulu- John Cho- People have been bitching about Cho being a Korean American and George Takai being Japanese American, which is just stupid. As George said, Sulu was meant to embody an Asian, not a Japanese character. And besides that it was firmly established Sulu was born in San Fransisco (IRONY he says as gay as possible). All that aside it was interesting and hard at the same time... He's bumbling at the helm yet confident fighting with a folding sword (?!). Not that Sulu was the confident man in the original series that he was in Star Trek 6, but even so, Cho just threw me.

Chekov- Anton Yelchin- I was very curious how Charlie Bartlet was going to pull off a Walter Koenig style performance as Chekov, and boy was I surprised. I didn't think it possible to out Chekov Chekov. Freakin' bravo.

Scotty- Simon Pegg- Huge Simon Pegg fan for years, when I heard he was playing Scotty I think any bias I might have had if he'd have been unknown pretty much went out the window. And actually seeing him on screen, performing Scotty taking over as chief engineer for the first time... Brilliant. Everything went right. And on the technical side, there is a scene where the Enterprise is almost sucked into a black hole, and Scotty suggests ejecting the warp core and riding the wave from the detonation to get away (which has been used a number of times on Star Trek) I especially appreciated that it wasn't just one core they ejected but several... In the original series the Enterprise had a number of dilithium chambers and no specific "warp core," we really didn't see one until the first motion picture.

Pike- Bruce Greenwood- LOVED the performance. Even though Pike was only in the unaired pilot (rebroadcast as "The Menagerie") I think he captured the character. And they even managed to duplucate Pike's fate without the beeping box. And I really want to say thank you to JJ Abrams for not duplicating the slug scene from Star Trek II and going for the mouth... I saw Nero pull that thing out and eyes shut till Lonna said it was ok. Horror I tell you.

So ultimately if its not obvious all ready I'm exceptionally happy with the movie. Granted I actually liked Nemesis and apparently everyone else hated it, so I dunno. But Lonna seemed to enjoy it too so it must have something for everyone. As I said, I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. Even though we've got this whole new universe thing, its really nice to have Star Trek back. And even nicer that it doesn't suck.