I loved ‘Star Trek’. Seriously, loved it. I saw it on Friday, and then again in IMAX on Saturday. And we even have plans to go possibly  see it again this weekend. Jess and I raided the Target for all the Trek toys, and I’m not a proud owner of the new Enterprise replica.

Now why did I love it so much? Well for the simple reason that it’s one of those films that is just so good, that I don’t think about the VFX for the entire length of the movie. I’m just in it and along for the ride. And that is incredibly rare let me tell ya.

It’s one of those films that I really think will inspire a whole new generation of kids to become a VFX artist when they grow up. And well…that’s just special. That’s what happened to me when I saw ‘Jurassic Park’ for the first time. But back then when I asked, ‘How did they do that?’ I had to hope and pray that there was some special on TV that I could gleen how they created all that computer magic. Luckily for kids today though, they have the internet. And VFXWorld just published a great article on how ILM accomplished this really great piece of work.

LINK: Where No Star Trek Has Gone Before

Not surprisingly, Abrams chose Industrial Light & Magic to boldly go where no Star Trek had gone before. This included a whole new approach to space battles, explosions, black holes and planetary destruction, as well as cool upgrades for vfx involving the phaser, the transporter and Warp Speed. Along with it came some new wrinkles, including a new fracture program along with improved procedural rendering and volumetric shader tools. ILM handled 797 out of the 1,005 vfx shots (with additional support from Digital Domain, Lola, Svengali and others).

Anyways, enough of my geek ranting. What did you all think of the film? Let me know in the comments below!