Star Trek

We had two choices last Friday night. Either we go to Angels and Demons on opening day or go to Star Trek on its second weekend. In the end we decided to avoid most of the crowd by going to the latter. And boy did we chose the right flick. I heard from some colleagues who went to Angels that it wasn't that good.

The young and fatherless James Tiberius Kirk was growing up to be a troublemaker. One night at a bar he got into a fight with some Starfleet cadets. It was the night that changed his life forever. Though if you knew at least some general knowledge of the original TV series, the night actually steered his life towards what was always his destiny, which is to say as the captain of the USS Enterprise.

This is a very well-written, well-directed, well-acted reboot of a popular old franchise. I have never seen (that is to say, completed) a single episode of the original TV series when the reruns were shown in a local station (RPN 5 in Cagayan de Oro) in the 1980's. I thought it was boring. I never got around to watching any of the 10 movie adaptations that came before this new one. I don't know much of the characters except for some of their names. But this new movie was awesome. I want to watch it again. JJ Abrams and his Fringe-writing team wrote a very adventurous, action-packed, and funny reboot of the Star Trek story and with lots of lens flare and camera-shake. This is not to be missed in theaters.

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How about that win by Roger Federer of the Madrid Open 2009? He beat Rafael Nadal on his home turf and on his favorite surface. The French Open just became interesting. Many say it was because Nadal was tired. Excuses. Right. Pretty much what they said of Hatton, and of De La Hoya, when they were pulverized by Pacquiao. Just as they can't accept the fact that Pacquiao was the better fighter in those two fights, Nadal fans can't accept that Federer was the better player in the recent match.