Came out: 2009

Directed by: J.J Abrams 

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, 

           Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin,

           Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy, Chris Hemsworth,

           Jennifer Morrison, Winona Ryder, Ben Cross

   In 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled, leading to four Trek-free years on TV. This was before i was that into Star Trek, but I can imagine how empty life must have felt for those who had followed Star Trek since 1987, the year TNG started airing. Any new TV- series set in the universe of Star trek hasn´t been airing since, which is a shame. But in the future it´s not impossible to start producing a new series, and that´s much thanks to J.J Abrams- who not only rebooted Star Trek in this film, but who also remade it in his own way. 

   This film works both as a prequel and a sequel to the Original Series- adventures. We get to see how Kirk was born in the middle of a history-changing event, involving a crazy romulan who, by mistake, was sucked into a black hole some years in the future, and ended up... there. Several years back in time. And by doing so, he completely changed the whole way of Star Trek, creating a new timeline where anything can happen... This fact prooves that the original timeline did exist, untill this romulan went back in time and changed it. So this is not a remake where they changed the story, but a... or wait... it is a remake where they changed story, but not without showing respect to the old timeline. 

  Having ruined all the adventures in all of the six TV series and ten previous movies, mr. Abrams can do his shit in his way, breaking the hearts of many old fans, but still introducing a lot of younger viewers to the series. So this film has both a good side, and a bad side (which most movies have). 

    The film begins with a familiar sight: space. And a space-ship. Fans of Star Trek will know that they´re watching the right shit. The space-ship is USS Kelvin, and it´s picking up a signal (surprised?). From what appears to be a "lightning-storm in space", a giant, Romulan ship comes out and attacks Kelvin. It´s captain Nero (Eric Bana), orders the captain of Kelvin (Captain Robau) to come over to his ship, in order to negotiate. It turns out Nero wants to know where Ambassador Spock is. Since Robeau doesn´t know the answer, he is brutaly murdered by Nero, and the Kelvin is attacked again. Acting captain of the Kelvin is George Kirk (Kirk´s future father), and he manages to save the whole crew (and his pregnant wife), paying the heroic deed with his own life. His wife gives birth to James Kirk, and by that the amazing opening-scene is over. 

   25 years later, James Kirk has grown up to be a real little bitch about everyone and everyting. He is a real pain-in-the ass to most people, but the legendary Captain Pike of the USS Enterprise sees something in the young man- something that makes him offer Kirk a possibility to join the Starfleet and live up to his name. Kirk decides to follow the advice, and aventually (after a brilliant white lie from Dr. McCoy- played by Karl Urban, who is the star amongst the new actors) ends up on the Enterprise. Soon, the ship gets a distress-signal from the planet Vulcan (Spock´s homeplanet). The signal tells about a "lightning-storm in space". Kirk recognizes those words from the stories he´s heard about his fathers death, and hurries to the bridge in order to stop captain Pike from warping to Vulcan. He says there might be romulans there. Pike decides to ignore Kirks warning, and goes to Vulcan anyway. Kirk was right, ofcourse. Nero is about to drill a giant hole in the planet and blow it up from the inside (we´ll find out why later in the review). Kirk, Sulu (who shows of some sword skills, "The naked Time"-style) and a red-shirt who dies before the mission even begins, tries to save the planet, but they fail, and Spock looses his mother. Somewhere in all this mess, Pike is taken prisoner by Nero. Kirk, who is no longer wantet aboard of the Enterprise, is sent of to the planet Delta Vega by the new casptain, Spock. (Delta vega was also   used in one of the Trek-films featuring the original series crew, "The Undisvcovered Country", 1991). On the dangerous ice-planet, Kirk is saved by Leonard Nimoy, who returns to his character Spock. In this film, he is mostly recognized as Old Spock. Old Spock had also done some timetraveling, which had resulted in that he aswell had been sucked into the black hole, and ended up at the same spot Nero did... only 25 years later. Nero had been waiting at that same spot all the time, only so that he could capture Old Spock when he came through the black hole, put him on Delta Vega and make him watch his home-planet blow up. All of this the mad guy went through becaus Spock tried to help him in the future, and failed- causing the planet Romula 5 to blow up. Nero wantet revenge.  Old Spock so tells Kirk the whole story about the messed-up time-line thing, and also convinces Kirk that he must take command over the Enterprise, if history shall ever turn out good again. But first, Kirk must get of Delta Vega. While visiting a Starfleet outpost on the planet, Kirk and Old Spock meet Scotty- played by the funny actor Simon Pegg. Scotty helps Kirk get of the planet and they both return to the Enterprise, leaving Old Spock behind becaus he doesn´t want to ruin the way of history more that he already did. 

   While back on the Enterprise, Kirk insults Spock emotions, causing him to sign of and give the command over the ship to Kirk. So, kirk and the crew saves Pike, Becomes friends with Spock again, and kicks Nero´s ass. And now, the new Star Trek adventures may contineu.

   As you probably understand, it´s all a big mess. But it´s not a bad movie, and the new acors look convincing. And some Leonard Nimoy is never wrong either. The film succesfully introduces the wonderful world of Star Trek to younger people, but that doesn´t change the fact that if you call yourself a Star Trek-fan and doesn´t know who plays Old Spock, you´re probably not a Star Trek fan at all. When i saw this film, I didn´t know who he was- but I found out by buying a DVD-set including the first season of The Original Series. That makes it a complete different thing. Moahaha.

   One of the parts I doesn´t like about this film, is the explosions. Star Trek had always been quite calm compared to other sci-fi giants like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. This film was everything else than calm, but there´s still much less explosions in here than it was in Into Darkness, which sometimes reminded me of a Michael Bay-film...

   I have choosen to screw all the thoughts about this film ruining the series. it´s entertaining as hell, and the people involved surely knew what they were doing when they made it. It makes way for a new TV-series and new adventures, and

it´s way better than Into Darkness.

I don´t recomend you to start with this film- I´d actually say you should watch it last, after you´ve seen The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock, The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Counry. Theese are the five good Trek-films featuring the cast of the original series. The Final Frontier is not good film, but it´s quite fun if you´re a fan.