Star Trek - the new movie - no spoilers here

I was so excited about seeing the new Star Trek movie tonight. My friend, Tory Vonderhaar's husband reviews movies for a blog and has connections. He knows the publicist for Paramount and got me and a friend from work reserved seats (the press row) for the pre-screening at the IMAX. We were dead center in the theater, the best seats in the house. I even got a new Star Trek baseball cap as a promotional item. It was pretty cool just walking ahead of the very long line, showing our press wrist bands, and entering the theater. Rather than wear my uniform, I just donned my communicator and Star Trek III: Search for Spock wristwatch in honor of this auspicious event.

I was surprised that the theater wasn't full - there were about 20 empty seats and the IMAX only holds about 300. But there have been other pre-screenings here in Houston, so maybe that's why.

Or maybe...just maybe...it was the Trekker geeks like me, who were most likely to want the pre-screening passes, found out the movie is a lot more action-packed JJ Abrams than it is Trek. There were a few really neat things thrown in for Trekkers, but as has been reported from all over (click here for a funny rendition) it's not really made for the faithful. I really didn't like the references to Star Wars -- let them get their own prequel! Oh yeah, they did...

I think that Chris Pine did a fine job capturing the essence of the James T. Kirk character, and Zachary Quinto did even better at portraying Spock. The actor who took on the young Dr. Bones McCoy was also quite believable. But Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, and Scotty were just not at all like the actors who created them in TOS. Scotty's accent sounded a lot more Liverpoolian than Scottish to me and Chekov's accent was so heavy it was hard to understand him at all. Indeed, the computer had difficulty recognizing him on the bridge (OK, minor spoiler there - I promise no others) and since when was he a child prodigy? (Oops - there's another one.)

I definitely still want to take Mom to see it on Mother's Day. I need to see how good it is on the smaller screen compared to the IMAX. It might have been all the action was doubly overwhelming due to the size of the screen and all that special surround sound speakers.

I can say for sure that you DO NOT have to be even the least bit familiar with Trek to enjoy this movie. That is, of course, if you really enjoy a lot of CGI, and violent fight scenes, and all kinds of stunts. I much prefer the cerebral Trek of the small screen (I mean, really small - TV - screen) to this.

I was also a little disappointed that JJ Abrams had said he was relying on two Trek novels for some of the plot. I read both of these novels, Prime Directive, which I didn't see anywhere in this movie anything even remotely connected to it, and Best Destiny, which did use his dad's name and the fact that he was in Starfleet - but was very different in the movie than it was in the book regarding the role Captain Pike had in young Jim's life.

Perhaps I had hoped for too much. I know it sounds like I was very disappointed in this movie. I wasn't - it's a good show. It just wasn't Star Trek -- at least, not to me.