EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
There are few things that get remade, revamped, remodeled or resurrected in such a way that actually makes me happy to see/visit it again. The newest take on the Star Trek franchise has made me a happy camper for sure. I blame this on several things actually...

SEVERAL THINGS
Director J.J. Abrams, popular television maestro of Alias, Felicity, Lost, and Fringe uses his talents to guide us on this Trek. P.S. - Abrams has commented that he was not a Star Trek fan prior to directing the film.

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have woven together a smart, witty, self-referencing, action story that does its best to please both old and new fans. Orci and Kurtzman have both collaborated with Abrams on previous projects. I assume the writers were fans or did a lot of homework. I have been a mild mannered Star Trek fan throughout the years. I know enough to keep up when talking to uber geeks. I repeatedly found myself impressed with the dialogue.

Loosely based on his autobiography written from behind bars, Chopper is the story of legendary Australian criminal Mark "Chopper" Read who garnered fame with his claim that he had killed up to seventeen people.

Andrew Dominik’s screenplay adaptation is wonderfully colorful and peppered with Aussie colloquialisms, while also being naturalistically brutal and raw. It is the type of story that pulls no punches and hits you in the face like a locomotive.

Dominik directs the film with unflinching depictions of violence—certainly vicious, but never glorifying it for its own sake. There are some very jarring, but hugely original scenes in the film that are handled with confidence. For example, in a scene where “Chopper” is repeatedly stabbed with a shank by his closest prisons mates, he just stands and takes it one cut a time, calmly asking his buddies why it has to come to this.