The other day I received an invite to a preview of the new Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield). This was quite a surprise for a couple of reasons: firstly the movie isn’t premiering until the 7th of May 2009 and secondly because Abrams had so far been decidedly secretive about this difficult undertaking. And make no mistake it is a difficult undertaking, with the commercial and critical failure of the last feature film Star Trek: Nemesis and the TV series, Star Trek: Enterprise, the future of the Star Trek franchise didn’t look good. Nevertheless, in come Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman with a brand new script that has the ambitious task of taking the series back to its prime while reinventing it for a new audience. This is something the series has debatably needed for quite some time, as Star Trek has always been one of the least accessible Sci-Fi franchises. So they had a fresh script – but that alone doesn’t make a blockbuster. What they needed was a big name director to pilot this ship and who they got was J. J. Abrams. The young action director who helmed hits like Mission Impossible 3 and Cloverfield is the Judd Apatow of action directors; the current ‘it’ guy.

Being a long-time Trekkie (meaning I just watch and enjoy the show not the dressing up as a Klingon and being generally creepy) I went into the preview with my mind decidedly undecided and my anticipation set to partially stunned (like 20% stunning capacity). They opened with the trailer which I think was a mistake as they had been playing it in a loop on the TVs where we had been waiting for several minutes and I had just joked to Kyle, who also attended, that the preview would be nothing but that. Then Abrams appeared… disappointingly only on screen. He thanked us for coming to the screening and apologised for not being able to make it. He then went on to talk about why he decided to make this movie, admitting he has never been a fan of the franchise.  He never mentioned any reference to Australia, so I wasn’t sure if this was a specific introduction for us or just the stock one recorded for all the international previews. That being said he cheerfully and charismatically introduced the first of four scenes.

As mentioned, both Kyle and I attended the screening. While I’m a big Star Trek fan, Kyle’s experience with the franchise is having seen a single episode of Star Trek: Voyager. We’ll both be providing feedback on what we thought on each of the four scenes we witnessed.

Be warned that the following is a partial account of the scenes and may contain “spoilers”, however if you are still on the fence about seeing the new Star Trek film it may be helpful. Read more [+]