Last Thursday, I went to the cinema to watch the new Star Trek movie, and I was completely blown away.

As a franchise, Star Trek had been getting a bit stale. It was continuously running on TV for eighteen years, with two series concurrently for half of that time (not counting syndicated repeats). And then there were six movies in there, too.

There were at least two things working for the new film – it came out 4 years after the last new Star Trek production was released (the series finale of Enterprise), and the writers and producers decided to reboot back to the original crew (although, with different actors).

Actually – they go a bit further back than the original series, introducing Kirk and Spock when they are growing up and joining StarFleet.

Another decision by the writers was to not go the future-retro-future (not sure how to describe it, really) look of Enterprise (where they tried to make the tech look older than the Original Series, but with a production quality matched to the 21st century), and worked to get a visual style which was more in keeping with the original series – but with enhancements. In other words, it looked great.

The actors chosen to play Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and McCoy (Karl Urban), were selected for their similarity in features to the original trio. The remaining cast relied more on mimicking behaviour and mannerisms rather than facial likeness – but from what I saw, all casting choices were good ones for this movie.

The director, J J Abrams, was one of the brains behind Lost, and also wrote MI:III and Armageddon. I think he did a pretty decent job on this movie (I hear he is now working on an adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series – so I’m looking forward to that).

The film does appear to deviate from ‘accepted’ Star Trek lore – but then it explains it, and in such a way that even the most die-hard fan can really object. And because it doesn’t retread, it stays nice and fresh – and is accessible for newcomers.

By the end of the movie, after watching some great acting and scripting, I was left hungry for more again (as opposed to the last couple of Next Generation movies which just seemed more like extended TV episodes). I haven’t seen any rumours yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they get at least one more movie out of the cast for this latest film.

So – verdict: this film is brilliant – well written, well directed, and well acted. Even if you don’t like Star Trek, the movie is setup so that you don’t have to have watched any of it before. It is a reboot, and it works.

Go watch and enjoy.