Going where many have gone before...

Great weekend. More specifically, great trip to cinema. So great that I thought I would right a little review.

I saw Star Trek on Sunday evening and I've gotta say... I may have been swayed a little. Alright, a lot.

Firstly, for a film to get me interested, having an explosion in the first 5 minutes really doesn't hurt!

What really surprised me by Trek was that along with suddenly being thrust into a massive space battle, you're also very quickly thrust into a highly emotional moment. I expected a few things from Star Trek, but tearing up during the opening sequence was not one of them.

Abrams is clearly a man who knows his action sequences, as if we couldn't tell from the excellent Alias and Cloverfield. That is why, whether you are a Trek fan or not, this should keep any sci-fi / action movies fan happy. There is little in the way of dragging, expositional scenes. instead, when the action drops, drama rises and tension flows from the screen almost continuosly (apart from the occasional comic relief, provided, unsurprisingly, by Simon Pegg and also through the rather engaging relationship between Kirk and Bones. Their close, gently mocking friendship plays beautifully and provides a sense of fun that would be desperately needed were we to be left with only the antagonistic relationships between Spock/Kirk and Uhura/Kirk.

The one draw back was that with such a varied, large cast of key characters, combined with a surprisingly complex storyline, a few people did get left behind, with only a handful of scenes between them.

Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) suffered mostly from this, as did Scotty (Simon Pegg).

However, everyone had their moment (I had a Star Trek fan on hand to explain the sly nods to the original series / actors) and all the lines that even I know were included.

Pine gave a solid performance as Kirk, but to my mind this film really belongs to Zachary Quinto as Spock.

While Kirk ticks every box in the 'How-to-construct-a-hero' list (Dead parent, rebellious attitude, ladies man etc.) Spock is a character that simply demands your attention. Quinto manages to imbue Spock with an underlying sense of fear and uncertainty that are in direct confliction with the outer quiet confidence he allows his shipmates to see. Combined with the rarely referenced relationship that he has with Zoe Saldana's Uhura Spock is a constant mystery. He manages to switch from calm, practical and closed-off, to a complete explosion of fury and pain in nanoseconds during one key confrontation with Kirk halfway through.

All in all, I am very much hoping for another film with these actors and Abrams back in the Director's saddle. Who knows, I may even go back and watch the original series. I'm told they're rather good...