I’m a regular listener of Mark Kermode’s film reviews. I was never really sure about the actual quality of the reviews, but the rants are fun. So when Mark gave the new Star Treck “The Future Begins” by J. J. Abrams a reasonably good review, I decided to see it when the opportunity came. A colleague of mine lent me the blue-ray disk, so I could watch it in full HD glory.

The movie is a Retcon on the old TV show. It basically explains how the various characters of the show came to be, except in a different universe. So we follow the paths of young recruits called Kirk, Uhura, McCoy, Usulu, or Spock.
Of course, there are bad guys, but they are easy to recognise because they have tribal tattoos, as usual, they want to destroy planets. The first part of the movie is centered on the characters and is in my opinion quite good, the dialog is witty, the characters a fresh take on the classics, and the paths of characters intertwine in interesting ways. The second part of the movie is about jumping and running around, driving spaceships fast and blowing up stuff. The first action sequence on the drill is fun, but this gets old quite fast. Characters introduced in this part do not get the time they desserve, and the end has clearly been designed for a sequel, not for being in any way satisfying. It’s quite a shame, because if the movie had somehow managed to keep the rhythm and the energy of the first part, it would have been quite good…