Jason Geeks Out...For Real This Time!

Kate and I just got back from a free advance screening of the new J. J. Abrams movie, Star Trek.

Awesome.

Awesome!

Can't say it enough. AWESOME!

I wasn't a big fan of the original series when I was younger. I think I would appreciate it more now, but it still engenders a certain cheese factor it will never be able to shake. But I was a very big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. So, while I wouldn't call myself a treky, I'm definitely predisposed to enjoying this film.

And I did. A lot.

The original series, as cheesy as it seems, was groundbreaking in a lot of ways. For the time it was made, the special effects were first rate. It blazed trails in terms of what was possible on television, and almost singlehandedly propelled science fiction into popular culture.

It was the first network television show to feature a multi-ethnic cast, featuring the first television bi-racial kiss. It imagined a future quite unlike the world as it existed when the show was produced. In the Star Trek universe, mankind no longer wars against itself, and not just because of a new, common, alien enemy, as in movies like "Independence Day." Mankind achieved peace through a maturation of the human psyche. In the Star Trek universe mankind no longer saw itself as separate from the rest of the universe, but as a small part of a much larger, much grander construct, and the peaceful exploration of that construct became much more important than petty human differences.

It's a view of humanity that I'd love to see more people adopt. It places a high value on the human condition, and how we interact with one another. It hold discovery, invention, innovation and understanding in high regard, especially as those concepts pertain to the advancement of human civilization. It holds that no one person, organization, or country is above helping the rest of us along that path, and that as society advances, we succeed or fail together, not at each other's expense. It's a very noble view of humanity.

And the Star Trek universe serves as the perfect setting for one awesome freaking movie!

It opens May 8th. See it and believe.