5 Things to like about the movie "STAR TREK"

I read the reviews of other movie critics. It is a time honored tradition with me. I read Roger Ebert's criticism of the movie STAR TREK and was slightly perturbed by his less than stellar review of it.

Ever since STAR TREK 2: The Wrath of Khan and TV spin offs like "Enterprise", I have been waiting for this series to redeem itself.

It has been a long wait. After reading Ebert's review, me and a friend went to see the new Star Trek film. I was astounded by how wonderful and fun it was, particularly because I had expected to be bored out of my mind with a wounded, cliched, over drawn plot and wooden acting by youthful and sexy actors new to the franchise. I was wrong and so was Ebert.

I am not an expert, Mr Ebert, but what we have on our hands is a great sci fi film. And here are my 5 reasons why anyone who has not seen it should:

1. The story line, while a bit predictable and self serving, was highly engaging. What do you expect with time travel? For history not to repeat itself. And it doesn't.

2. The Villian: Eric Bana plays Nero a Romulan who goes back in time to destroy Vulcan (and Earth) and avenge the death of his entire planet by killing anyone who gets in his way. A true to life Star Trek Villian if there ever was much like the late Ricardo Montalban's Khan. He runs throughout the film with complete tunnel vision with his only objective being vengeance.

3. The Characters: Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) a young man, half human and half Vulcan, who is as much conflicted with himself as he is conflicted with a young impulsive James Tiberius Kirk (played by Chris Pine). Both young men acted out the rivalry very well. Zoe Saldana plays Uhura very well. She moves between being the no nonsense, object of desire for Kirk and the tender love interest of Spock very well. Her gentleness brought out the humanity in a Spock, a character that is supposed to supress his emotions. Rounding out the cast are Anton Yelchin, Karl Urbin, John Cho and Simon Pegg as Chekov, Dr. "Bones" McCoy, Zulu, and (my favorite from the series) Mr. Scotty respectively.

4. JJ Abrahms. The guy who brought us CLOVERFIELD is apparently like Timex. He just keeps on ticking. He has taken the old and made it new. Hopefully there will be a sequel to this latest venture. I am actually interested in the characters again.

5. Leornard Nimoy. As a 129 year old Spock, the guy still has it.

Deforest Kelley, and James Doohan I think would have been proud of how this movie turned out.

As a fan, I know I am throughly satisfied. Mr. Ebert, this was not a C+ film. I give it an A.