I saw Star Trek yesterday and had a great time. My criteria for a good movie is whether or not I feel like one of the characters when I walk out of the theater, and when I left my seat I prayed for a Romulan to pop out of the garbage can. As long as it wasn’t Eric Bana, because I like that guy. If you haven’t seen Chopper, rent it today.
I don’t care about the new film’s faithfulness to the franchise – I abhor doing something because that’s the way it’s always been done and love new perspectives on old and dusty material. I read an interview with director (and genius) J.J. Abrams, who said this about his storytelling process:
“People never know what they want, though everyone says they do. If they did, nobody would ever be surprised. The truth is, what you want is a story that is engrossing and surprising. And at the end of the day, a good story is a good story, whether you’re a fan or not.”
He tells a very good story in Star Trek, and turned me into a fan.