Star Trek is back!

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/Star_Trek_is_back_Starbase_Blog]Imagine watching something that you loved beaten and left for dead. That’s what happened when Berman and Braga killed off Star Trek in “These are the Voyages…” ending Enterprise and 40 years of Trek.

Well, JJ Abrams has brought Trek back to life in a way that you wouldn’t believe.

While respecting what has come before in previous series and movies, this film reboots Trek for the 21st Century making it accessible to everyone and more fun that it’s been in a long, long time. Everyone is perfectly cast in the iconic characters, ILM’s special effects are amazing, the movie moves at an excellent clip where you’ll never be looking at your watch, and it’s filled with enough laughs, fun, emotion, and excitement that you’ll not find a better way to spend $10 this summer.

The basic premise is that about seven years following the events of Star Trek: Nemesis; the Romulan star is about to go Nova. Ambassador Spock (still being on Romulus) promises to fix it, but is unable to do so in time and Romulus is destroyed. A Romulan miner named Nero was off planet at this time, but his family wasn’t. Nero and Spock were both caught up in the resulting black hole and tossed back in time. Nero arrives in 2233 on the day James T. Kirk is born and proceeds to destroy the USS Kelvin, which is being captained by George Kirk. As a result Kirk’s father dies when he wasn’t supposed to and the entire time line is thrown out of whack and things don’t quite happen as they’re supposed to.

Nero is bent on revenge against Spock and the Federation for the destruction of his home world, and as a result things happen in this Star Trek that completely change the franchise’s universe forever. Through it all the original NCC-1701 crew must come together in the roles we’re all familiar with, only in a different way than what happened before. Old Spock (called Spock Prime now) pops up a couple times to push both Kirk and Spock in the direction they need to go in order to fall into the roles we’re familiar with.

A perfect soundtrack that couldn’t be much better unless Jerry Goldsmith were still around compliments some amazing ILM effects. Those two elements just wrap around what is pretty much the best Star Trek movie that isn’t titled The Wrath of Khan. I look forward to seeing this Star Trek many times in the future. With a fresh time line to work with, the sequels can go almost anywhere and Star Trek is finally back. It’s been too long a wait.