Star Trek is one of the crowning series of nerd culture. For many people when it comes to sci-fi fantasy series that they seem to get into to, usually the most common two responses would be Star Wars or Star Trek. While Star Wars is more publicly loved as its much simpler and less engrossed in a ton of background with various tv shows and movies, the franchise has been a very popular one, earning itself at least 12 movies, even earning itself a reboot franchise in 2009. In the future where space travel and life on other planets is commonplace, brash but brilliant James Kirk (played by Chris Pine) is subtly convinced to join Starfleet, a space academy that specialises in exploring the galaxy for new discoveries. Though he’s full of himself and a complete womaniser, Kirk proves that he is incredibly capable behind the wheel and slowly works his way onto the most important ship of all, the Starship Enterprise. Though some of the crew see him as too reckless, mainly a half man half alien species Vulcan called Spock (played by Zachary Quinto), the ship will need his abilities after a rogue alien comes from another parallel timeline to seek revenge on Spock’s race. The rebel in question named Nero (plated by Eric Bana) wishes to wipe out the Vulcan planet and earth along with it after his own planet was accidentally destroyed in his timeline. With time running out, the two opposing ideals have to work together to stop this threat from reaching their planets. Even though the franchise is very popular, its not as mainstream as other sci-fi classics because of its abundance on political intrigue than can come across as a bit too nerd-heavy for some. This takes it to the next level where it can be enjoyed by practically anyone and followed by anyone, but still have that edge and identity that separates it from other space-fairing stories. With great actors, amazing looking effects, a charming but grounded tone and plenty of changes to call it its own thing, this is a great reboot for this series.

The story does feel like an effective reboot; it does things almost completely different from the original shows and movies so that nobody would confuse them together and it would open up a fresh slate to base a new franchise off of. Even going so far as to have everyone much younger and inexperienced, it helps to give the audience a taste of this new formula slowly and gives the writers and easier time with explaining all the ins and outs as they can do it from scratch. There are enough differences for it to be called its own thing, but it also shows that it does hold a soft spot for the originals and creates a very similar atmosphere to the original that fans can still appreciate it. The world they create is very futuristic, but also feels very liveable, it feels like a real-life universe but if aliens were discovered and contacts were made. That’s where the fantasy aspect is taken away from this sci fi and it keeps itself grounded but also very interesting. While the film is surprisingly engaging and holds the audience with them for the two-hour running time, the film takes a bit of a dive around the last third. The director of the movie, J.J. Abrams has a habit of ending his movies poorly and it can feel in this movie as well, despite how well he was doing in the build up to it. Though it not harmful or offensive in any way, the film does feel empty when it ends, the climax doesn’t really feel that frantic, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should have, even the built-up to the climax is a lot slower and less interesting than the movie was earlier.

The characters are all names that fans will recognise, and newcomers will grow attach to pretty quick. It feels like the characters are correct in how they’re portrayed, and yet their younger ages and newcomer status helps them feel a bit newer than the older versions. While none of them really develop that much in the movie, for an origin story, most of them are pretty well introduce. Kirk is a good main character and Chris Pine does great as him, side characters like Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones and Simon Pegg as Scotty are all wonderful and do great jobs standing out with the bit parts they’re given. A hiccup comes in the form of Spock; while the actor is doing his best and he has the stature and quiet direct delivery of the character, the direction the character take in the movie makes it really hard for people to like him. He comes across as more whiny and condescending than emotionally-devolved, possibly due to the age difference and development that he has emotions but chooses to ignore them making him feeling even more fake, it’s a shame to see one of the most popular character in Star Trek start in a really unlikeable way. The villain is a joke; everything about him is either boring, stupid, or just silly. He has no personality, a predictable stale backstory, a horribly bland design, no intimidation factor, no sympathy, the plan is generic, his motivation makes no sense, and even Eric Bana is a bad choice for him, it doesn’t feel like he fits into this world. The villain is one of the weakest parts of the movie and he really drags down the final moments.

The effects in this movie are pretty impressive, helped out by Abrams’ obsession with metallic, blue-coloured shiny things. The spaceships all look very impressive and very nice to look at, it allows for some great looking shot of space especially when the ships are near planets and fighting against each other. Sometimes the aliens can look a bit too disturbing-looking even when there is actually make-up, but there isn’t that much of them in the movie. The movie doesn’t seem to have that much action and yet it manages to keep the audience invested for so long despite it, its truly a testament to how well it manages to make a bunch of talking interesting. With that in mind, the action set-pieces themselves aren’t anything special, they have the space fights which are flashy and big but not very memorable or that interestingly shot, and the fist fights are also a bit too simplistic and a bit too rapidly edited to really appreciate it. The cinematography can be a bit much in moments; another issue of Abrams’ movies is that he can never keep the camera for very long, so there’s a lot of sweeping shots that are constantly moving even in shots where no motion is needed. It can be a bit distracting.

Star Trek may not be a franchise that many can get into, but this movie does a surprisingly very good job in getting people to look at the franchise in this new coat of paint. While very different in look and tone, it seems to capture the same atmosphere, spirit of adventure and charm of character that the original liked to focus on. The film does struggle near the ending with the awful villain, rushed exposition and a complete different feel from the other parts of the movie, the rest is an engaging, likeable, entertaining, faithful version of the space odyssey series. With great actors portraying likeable characters, enough risks taken in a relatively safe way that won’t annoy fans but still please newcomers and taking something that seemed to complicated for the mainstream, and rebooting it into a brand new franchise. Definitely worth a check out, see it take Star Trek to a place where no Star Trek film has ever gone before.