Star Trek. The final frontier. These are the voyages of.... well, a brand new crew and time continuity.
I saw the new Star Trek movie. I had my doubts going into this movie. I though, "Why are they recasting everyone and changing continuity? Why not just have new crew in the future?".
Why? Because this is Star Trek, the Hollywood blockbuster, not Star Trek the TV series. And honestly, that's not a bad thing.
The known and loved Star Trek timeline is changed right off the bat in this movie, with a Romulan mining vessel coming through a worm hole into a time just before the original series (TOS) time line. They battle a starship which the father of James T. Kirk takes over after the captain is taken by the Romulans. Kirk senior sacrifces himself and the ship so that his pregnant wife, who at this very moment gives birth to Baby Kirk, can survive.
It is this moment that makes this movie ok with me. The timeline and universe are changed minutes before the birth of Captain Kirk. I've read other review of this movie saying that the Kirk character in this movie is too different from the Kirk character in TOS. That's understandable now. The original Kirk grew up with a father, this one didn't. The original Kirk was inspired to join Starfleet, this one wasn't.
However, the changes aren't just in the character of Kirk. All of the characters are tweaked from their original versions, the technology looks updated, but similar, and the pace is far faster.
Where the last few Next Generation movies felt like an extended episode of the series, especially Insurrection, this new movies feels like a stand alone feature film. It still has ties to TOS, and even the timeline of TNG, but you could watch this movie without any prior knowledge.
I give Start Trek an 8.5/10.
