Star Trek

Last night at 10:25 I went to see the newest installment to the Star Trek franchise. Apparently this is the 11 movie in the series. I have missed a fair number of them, I remember only 4 or 5.
I bought my ticket earlier in the day to ensure a seat at the local theater but I needn't to have worried because the theater was only half filled. Presumably all the trekkies in Canyon Country had already attended one of the earlier showings.
Although I have numerous friends that are trekkies I just know enough of the serious to get most of the references. Growing up, my mom loved Star Trek so whenever it came on we would gather around the TV to watch episodes. My brothers and I would often surf channels trying to find reruns for her to watch. I always hit the sack around 10:00 on school nights growing up so I was limited to weekend finds. In short, I mostly associate Star Trek with my mom and generally felt it was uncool to embrace wholeheartedly something a MOM enjoyed.
Now that enough background has been laid, I will get one with my thoughts on the new installment. It was action packed and the actors did a good enough job. I felt that it was true to Gene Roddenberry's original concept of the characters. Zachary Quinto I felt was a perfect match for a young Spock. Leonard Nimoy playing the venerable Spock was homage that made me feel warm. Kudos to JJ Abrams here. Chris Pine instills the honorable bad boy charisma in the character as William Shatner imbued to his Kirk. A new sexy Kirk for a new generation. Simon Pegg as Scottie was spot on. The comic relief he provided gave the movie a definite boost up. Quinto and Pine worked well enough together to provide a believable enough insight into the future relationship that they had in the form of Shatner and Nimoy. The only problem I had was with Kurt Urban. I thought that he did a well enough portrayal of Deforest Kelly' but for the first half of the movie I kept asking myself who he really reminded me of and then when I finally figured it out I got a new kind of interference through the rest of the movie. Young Chris Noth kept looping through my head when he was on screen. If they do a prequel to Law and Order of Sex in the City he's without a doubt your guy.
Although the overall plot was weak and Eric Bana as the evil Romulan did not flesh out the evilness of his Romulan bad guy, I found Star Trek engaging enough with fantastic special effects and good enough wit and repartee to warrant the $11 I paid. I felt the film was a mile above Watchmen.
The one thing that I found interesting enough to ponder on throughout most the film was how well they constructed the prequel. Due to a creative disruption of the space time continuum this film was a prequel that wasn't a prequel. How cool is that? The film primed us for an entirely new era of Enterprise & Crew adventures that pay homage to but are not hemmed in by the past. Brilliant.