Star Trek

I was never much of a viewer of the Star Trek television series and therefore not too familiar with it although I was aware of the multinational nature of its character list and of the half human, half whatever Spock.

I saw the early instalments in the movie franchise series but then lost interest and did not bother to see the later films. Now comes 2009's Star Trek complete with rave reviews.

This latest instalment takes the characters back to their beginnings with the birth of James Tiberius Kirk, destined to be Captain of the USS Enterprise, even as his father George Kirk is about to lose his life in confrontation with the villainous Nero. We see James Kirk's recruitment to the space academy, his somewhat rebellious nature and his rivalry with the young Spock. Eventually Kirk, having achieved his destiny, goes into battle with Spock against Nero.

Basically, as most of these films tend to be, the tale is of good versus evil. I won't spoil the surprise by revealing who wins.

Most of the dialogue is packed with Star Trek 'speak' delivered with the gravity of a declaration of war against a noisy background. I could get the gist, if not always the substance, of what was happening.

The film is superbly designed and the special effects as Eddy would say are 'awesome'. No kidding, those effects seemed seriously good to me.

I didn't always understand what was going on but the trip sure was fun.

By the way, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are very easy on the eye.