Trek to the stars.

Cinematic Moment:  A real cinematic moment.

Do you remember being a kid and going to the movies?  For me, it was magic.  The theater wasn't so far from my house that we couldn't walk there and when our parents were feeling desperate to get the kids out of the house, walk there we did.  Pulling open those glass doors at the entrance was the pitchers breath before throwing a 90 mph ball towards the mound.  In real life, I was a slow bloomer and still bordered on the possibility of Santa Claus and unicorns while all my friends assured me otherwise. Each time I handed over a ticket to the attendant, I could simultaneously hand over disbelief for 2 hours without feeling immature.   Everyone in that theater was on the same page--it didn't matter if Batman wasn't real or lions couldn't sing in real life.  At the movies, you could age as quickly or slowly as you wanted to.  And I wanted the world to stay surreal forever.

Today the frianceband and I went to see the newest Star Trek movie.  Though I am by no means a "trekkie", my father certainly was and dragged my brother and I into the world whether we liked it or not.  At first I loved it, but eventually turned against the series when I was a teenager and growing increasingly concerned with others opinions of what was cool.   "Star Trek" was just above "going to the movies with your dad" on that list.   In those teen years, something else happens.  Your willingness to suspend disbelief becomes more selective.  Sure, I'd accept that the Prince of some made up country could easily meet and fall in love with a hot dog vendor in some romantic comedy, but throw in an alien or a sword and you lost me.  

At the ripe age of 26, having attended more comic book conventions than I can count, learned the difference between "fantasy" and "sci-fi" and begun co-writing a series myself,  I could give a shit what anyone else thinks and decided to give Star Trek another shot.

We went to the 10:30 am showing--one that was nearly full to capacity.  The enthusiasm of Trekkies is contagious and walking up to the concession stand, I felt like a kid all over again.  The anticipation, the banter over how it will be...holy shit the concession stand sells chicken fingers and Bon bons??  My childhood movie snacking was confined to popcorn and stale butterfingers!  I'll take one of everything.

I won't go into detail, but the movie (along with the chicken fingers) was phenomenal.  Great casting, great script,  just the right amount of nostalgia and a secondary love story.  I think what makes a lot of people turned off by science fiction based movies is the intimidation factor of spacecrafts and foreign things blowing up and I don't know, nebulas--but not once in this film did I feel intimidated or out of my element.  Rather than leaving me on Earth, Star Trek took me along to the final frontier.  And the movies were magic once more.