LA/San Diego Trip

Videos from our trip to Universal Studio and Sea World.

Star Trek - New frontier; magic of J.J.Abrams

I could not wait in my office to get out on Friday evening. I had just been reading reviews of the Star Trek movie and it was sending me across the galaxy. Just like the other movies that released in the last quarter of 2008 this movie climbed the IMDB top 250 charts and was sitting at #228 even before its release. I rushed home and headed straight to the theaters.

Fade-in

The movie begins with the story of how the earlier USS Enterprise is destroyed by the Romulun villain Nero(Eric Bana) and Captain (Faran Tahir) is murdered. This also shows how young Jim Kirk is born and his dad perishes along with the ship to save others. This is followed by the young Spock(Zachary Quinto) who has human and Vulcan blood getting accepted in the Academy of science but refusing it to join the Star Fleet. Later Jim Kirk(Chris Pine) is caught by Captain Pike(Bruce Greenwood) brawling with some bullies and rescued and advised to join the Star Fleet. Refusing to do so that time Kirk later goes to the shuttle for new recruits and challenges to finish it in 3 years. Here is where he meets Dr.Bones(Karl Urban) and makes friend with him.

An interesting scene is when we find out that Kirk breaks the record and passes the test designed by Spock which is basically impassable. The later scenes are pretty quick and a little unrealizable as new future age policies are thrown around and somehow Bones manages to get Kirk into USS Enterprise. Kirk realizes that the rescue mission that they are bound for is going to turn out to be a fight and warns Captain Pike. Spock is unrelentingly against Kirk's idea and puts logic into everything. He later agrees and the ship moves into Warp speed and reaches the Vulcan planet.

They face the Romulun ship and their transponders are deactivated and Captain Pike is invited to a conversation with Nero. Though he is advised by others to avoid going into the enemy ship he has a plan and takes Kirk, Sulu and another crew member to bail onto the drilling stem and deactivate it. The plan goes into action and here we see a lot of hand-to-hand action and Kirk and Sulu manage to deactivate the drilling stem but Nero manages to put the Red Matter into Vulcan which is about to create a black hole. Spock realizing his home is being destroyed beams onto his home and tries to rescue the leaders including his Parents. While beaming out he loses his Mother(Winona Ryder) and is devastated.

With Captain Pike captured by Nero, Spock becomes the Captain and there is an argument between Spock and Kirk about whether to regroup with the other ships or chase the Romulun ship heading towards Earth. Kirk is taken away and bailed out onto an ice planet Delta Vega. He regains consciousness and treks to a nearby control center. Here is the best part of the movie when he is chased by local savage creatures and ends up being rescued by Spock Prime.

This part of the story is the twist and we come to know that Spock in the future fails to save the Romulun planet from a supernova by creating a black hole using the Red Matter and Nero is angered by this and sends him here to witness his revenge against the Federation. Spock prime takes Kirk to the nearby control center to meet Montogomery (Simon Pegg) who created the transporter. They beam themselves into USS Enterprise leaving behind Spock prime. Kirk then manages to emotionalize Spock and makes him resign as Captain. Kirk becomes the Captain and they set course to follow Nero. They catch up with him and the final fight happens with Spock and Kirk beaming into Nero's ship and Spock hijacking the ship with the Red Matter and Kirk rescuing Captain Pike. Spock puts the ship with Red Matter into collision course with Nero's ship and at the right moment the three are beamed into USS Enterprise. They offer to save Nero but he refuses and the black hole is created but only to find that USS Enterprise is also being sucked in. At the last moment Montomery creates a blast and they escape.

At the end we find Kirk being honored and relieving Captain Pike as captain of USS Enterprise. Spock meets Spock Prime. Spock prime advises him to sometimes leave logic alone and do what he feels. Spock offers as the Officer First in Command to Kirk and
their friendship is formed.

Fade-out

The best movie of 2009 till now. It has the necessary ingredients of Comedy, Action, Romance and Special effects to make it a blockbuster. Actors like Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Simon Pegg (Montomery), John Cho (Sulu) provide good entertainement. Chris Pine's cool potrayal of Kirk is defintely a breather. As all Science Fiction it had the disadvantage of impressing the crowd but it was a surprise when the audience started clapping at the end of the movie. A real crowd pleaser and definite revival of Star Trek craze.