I had the privilege of watching the new Star Trek movie 2 weeks ago, in a press preview. To answer the question many people have asked me about it – it’s a great action movie, and a decent Star Trek movie. Hardcore trekkies will find many things to get upset at in this movie, though there are tons of references and inside jokes meant solely for them, that will be missed by the uneniciated crowd.

It appears the movie raked in some $72.5 million in opening weekend, a decent sum, making it the fifth most profitable Trek movie – and all in just three days.

But as I said, I’d call this movie a “decent” Trek movie. It has the great characters, and some good drama, but it lacks the touchy moral issues we loved tackling week after week in TOS and TNG. I would have not expected to see the movie address any touchy issues (and it would probably have been an epic fail if it were to try), but this was still missed. The only exception to this, seems to be the (Spoiler!!!) implied waterboarding of captain pike, which was mostly edited out.

(This very much reminds me of the torture scenes of Geordi in Generations, which were also mostly edited out:)

Anyway, I’d love to see more real-life issues addressed in Trek, and I do believe (and hope) that this movie is a harbinger for several more, if not a TV series. I think JJ has what it takes to make great drama, and Trek offers a ripe setting for his style.
It will, however, require of us die hard trekkies to loosen up a bit, and allow for some poetic license.

And to the point, and the reason I’m writing all this: there are a lot of questions that rise in the movie, and go unanswered. Apparently a prequel to the movie was made in comic form. The four issue Countdown series tells the story of the movie’s villain, as well as that of our favorite TNG characters, which we last saw 7 years ago, at the end of Nemesis (ever wonder what happened to Data/B4?). I only found out about this comic series after watching the movie, and it answered my questions in retrospect. If you have the opportunity, download and read the comics before watching the movie. Your enjoyment of the film will be greater.