Star Trek Into Darkness

#184 at the time of writing.

J. J. Abrams set the bar high with his reboot of the Star Trek film franchise, and with this sequel he has delivered against high expectations. Again, he has produced a film that works independently as sci-fi thriller fare yet while remaining rooted in the Star Trek universe.

And it is thrilling indeed. I found myself at the edge of my sat so often that at one point I suspected the story was just a bunch of how-will-they-make-it-out-of-this-one set-pieces strung together. But of course the heroes prevail, without too many plot holes or deus ex machina.

Ultimately, this is thoroughly satisfying, and I'll be first in the queue to see number three in the series. (But oh no! Mr Abrams won't be at the helm! He'll be too busy directing Star Wars VII...)

I'm sure this film has yet to reach its peak on the IMDb ranking. However, I reckon that when the dust settles, this film's ranking will follow its predecessor's and plummet. Whether it clings on to the Top 250 or not remains to be seen.

Star Trek

#82 at time of writing.

Batman Begins did it. The Pink Panther did it. The Incredible Hulk did it. And now, Star Trek has rebooted too. This is not a straightforward prequel to the franchise, but a resetting of the entire story world. The rules have been rewritten, and now anything can happen.

And, wow, director J.J. Abrams has set the bar high.

This is the fourth film in the series to use time travel as a plot device. An extremely disgruntled Romulan is accidentally cast 150 years into the past, determined to avenge the destruction of his home planet (which hasn’t, of course, happened yet), coincidentally arriving at the moment of James T. Kirk’s birth. Thus, an alternative timeline begins.

Now, I’m a Next Generation guy. Shatner was too smug for me, and DS9 was trying too hard. But this? This I can get on board with.

I was grabbed right from the opening scene: We've all seen epic space battles before, but grounding the action with the emotional and intensely human experience of giving birth (while the daddy is about to be blasted to smithereens) - that gets my attention.

After watching this, I watched a bunch of old Star Trek on You Tube. Tribbles rock.