Thing is, I’m not surprised. He comes over as a bit of a geek, and he is very keen on cinema and story telling. The new Trek film spins a good yarn, as well as pressing a lot of “geek” buttons.

I always suspected he was a geek (actually, he's probably admitted it at some point), but more for the sort of films that rarely trouble the multiplex

He directed an episode of Alias. I think he was keen on doing a James Bond film too. Part of his Grindhouse release was science fiction/horror with zombies (though he didn’t direct that part). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Terror

I would be surprised if he ever helmed a main stream SciFi film, but I’d not put it past him if the story was right.

Got watching the recent Trek film last night - very impressed, especially as I'm a non-Trekie. A mini review follows (spoilers kept to a minimum, but avoid if you wanna go in cold)

I liked the humour throughout, and the comic timing on display from all concerned was fantastic. The action was fantastic and well shot (you could actually see what was going on, which is rare these days ), the CGI was only there to serve the story.

I found the time travel aspect a little confusing as it didn't seem to be too clearly set out IMO , and some of the geekier descriptions of the hardware etc grated a little as a non-Trek-type, but these are only minor complaints and I'd recommend the film to anyone

The best kinds of CGI. If you got the set with 3 disks, you should find a raft of very useful stuff about how it was made.

Karl Urban’s Dr MacCoy was spot on. The right inflections and timing, but without him doing an impression, impersonation or parody of DeForest Kelly.



It has to appeal to die hard Trek fans too. I think they got the balance right. It was almost liberating, knowing that they were staring fresh with no baggage to bog it down. It bounces along nicely, looks fantastic and I hope any sequel builds on this and expands the new version of the Trek universe.

It was just a rental to test out BR - think I'll just stick with upscaled DVDs until BRs are the same price, there's little difference when you're actually just trying to watch a film

I have to say, the little inflections of the characters was what made it for me - everything from Pine's drunkenness, to Spock's little glimmers of emotion as Quinto brilliantly delivered what some actors would have just said with a straight face

I'm looking forward to a sequel too, if only so we get to see more of Simon Pegg as Scotty

And I now understand some of the sigs I've seen about this place and other forums

The article I got it from is complete Yank gibberish, but the Trek sequel has a release date of May 29th, 2012 now...

I saw this film over Christmas.
It was very good with just a couple of flaws.
1) The outside of the Enterprise looked arse. It should have looked like the original films.
2) They've cocked up the continuity for all the previous films (but I hear they intended it to be a different time line).

Good
Bad

That one is the ugliest of all!!!

It is called a reboot, a restart of the franchise.

A shame, I don't think there was any need for it, I would have liked to have seen the early life of Jim and Spock, as they were supposed to be. I'm really not sure about this new franchise.

There is far too much “canon” to make continuing the franchise viable. You saw the problems they had trying to slot Enterprise into it - making prequels “mesh” when there are four major series ahead it very hard, especially when a lot of the later stuff was pants.

Starting again with a clean slate is better than trying to tell the early lives of Spock and Kirk.

I hope they pick up J. Michael Straczynski’s proposed reboot treatment for a TV series if they want to continue. That looked fascinating.

I think this way they get new fans while also maybe drawing them towards the old stuff too. The geek sector didn't really seem to mind the reboot, far as I could tell.

I had little or no interest in ST, but I thought the recent film was a great introduction for the most part

This man writing Trek would be, legen......wait for it.......dary!

As for the reboot, it's a superb movie in it's own right and I very much look forward to the next one. Just watched in for the 3rd time the other night (twice in the cinema) and Blu-Ray treats it very, very nicely. Ultimately, the only recent JJ thing I haven't liked was Cloverfield and that was only because it made me feel sick

MI:3 (where Simon Pegg played the same character essentially), Alias, Lost, Fringe. It's all great to watch and every time I hear a Michael Giacchino score it adds that something extra.

When it comes to continuity, Paul's right. The franchise was buckling under the stress of 40yrs of canon. How many reboots have happened in Marvel and DC land throughout the last 50yrs?!
I was lucky enough to go to the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas before it closed and that used the canon to great effect. The Klingons, Borg and Starfleet personnel wandering around made for an engaging experience for people who knew the canon. I'm excited to see what JJ, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci build with this new franchise. Maybe one day, I'll get to go on a ride that has me attacked by Romulans, or someone else entirely??