Dan Mindel

I had my doubts, but I had to see it. They did IT! It works. Star Trek, is back!! It just won't die. Seriously, Trekker or not, see this movie. It delivers. First must see movie of the year.

I need to state a few things up front: One: I hate time travel movies. Without exception they all have huge plot holes and problems. Since it was pretty open from the beginning this was going to be one I had reservations. Two: I hate summer action films because most are the same dumbed down crap year after year, and this was obviously going to be a summer action movie despite being a Trek film. Three: It's a Star Trek film. No matter how much you love the series you have to admit that the record of the movies based on it ain't exactly stellar. That being said it was pretty darn good despite a few flaws. If you have an engineering or physics background DO NOT see this film (of course you probably get told that about every scifi/action movie). If you were a fan of the original Star Trek series, they put in a lot of nods to you, and even if they don't all work, it's still more than most fans get from series reboots. I can honestly say it's the first movie I've seen recently where I didn't feel like I got robbed at the box office (the last one being The Wrestler). Oh and a side note to Abrams should he direct a sequel: bring back the green skinned redhead. Or we will haunt you.

As a life-long Trekkie and as a movie fan, I have a couple of issues with J.J. Abrams' new prequel/reboot of Star Trek. Chief among them is a lack of screen time for Eric Bana as the villain, Nero. However, J.J. and his team just got so many other things exactly RIGHT that my few little quibbles seem very minor. This is a slightly flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless, and it deserves to bring Star Trek back on the map. Hell, yeah. Almost Four Bones....

There is some nice atmosphere here and an intriguing plotline involving hoodoo and a house with an old and not so nice history, but where it could have resembled something like Angel Heart (a similar type of movie), it just didn't really pull off the 'scary' vibe. Worth one watch, the acting is decent, but the 'scares' are too typically Hollywood and therefore aren't really that spooky.