Since it opened on May 8th I’ve been to see Star Trek twice.  Given the opportunity, I would go again at the drop of a hat.  It’s just that good.  It’s been a while since I was a self-avowed Trekkie, but trust me, there was such a time.  From 6th to 8th grade I was a die-hard fan.  The Trekkie chapter in my life contributed to my remarkable awkwardness during adolescence, but it was a chapter that made me a better person nonetheless.  Napoleon Dynamite will one day be a man of great character thanks to his awkward years of living on the margin.  And I was almost that nerdy.  I would sit and draw the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D over and over again at lunch.  I think it’s stored in my muscle memory now.  I could probably bust out a decent sketch of it to this day.  (As a side-note from a youth ministry perspective, a childhood without these kind of social struggles generally makes for miserable people.  It is a blessing to be a nerd.  A little dose of struggle, awkwardness or suffering makes us all better.  We all know people who have gone through all of their life as the “popular” kids… it is not pretty.)

All that is to say that there was a time when I wouldn’t have missed a Star Trek film, and would have been mostly excited about the spaceships and all that other über nerdy Trek stuff.  The story and the drama was secondary to me.  Well that was in middle school.  My Trek fandom has wained so much that I haven’t bothered to watch the last few films (and from what I’ve heard I didn’t miss much).  But then J.J. Abrams was brought on board to “reboot” the Trek franchise with a prequel.  As I’ve said before, there are some artists that get a free pass from me, Abrams being one of them.  Not that it took much arm twisting to go see this film, I mean, did you see the trailer??? It was obvious that this Star Trek was going to kick butt on so many levels.  And it did not dissapoint.  Like George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, this Star Trek just jumps right into the action, putting credits off until after the ride is over.  And the film hits the ground running.  After the first 5 minutes or so your heart is pumping because of the intensity of the action and your eyes are tearing up because of the depth of the drama.  Then *BAM* pause just long enough for the “Star Trek” title to scrawl across the screen and we’re thrown right back into the action.  I can’t say enough about this movie.  The actors were great – doing an excellent job of playing their characters and not playing the actors who played their characters before them.  Chris Pine for instance, plays Kirk, not Shatner playing Kirk.  And it worked.  They did throw a few bones to the die-hard Trekkies out there, but this film was accessible and FUN, no matter what level dungeon master you happen to be.

I forgot to mention how great Michael Giacchino’s score was.  It reminded me so much of the Ennio Morricone’s score for Eastwood’s speghetti westerns.  Lots of trumpets and kettle drums.  Soooo epic.