No contest.

I had an opportunity to see both movies this past week, but if you can only see one, here’s my advice: make it Star Trek.

First off, if you know me, I’m not a big sci-fi or superhero fan. I have become somewhat numb by both genres as the endless flow of big budget, big disappointment films continue to be Hollywood’s forte.

Iron Man was a disappointment for me. It was slow getting on its feet at the beginning and then, at least to me, morphed into a combination of over-the-top special effects which highlighted too few characters that I actually cared about. One particular scene with many different “suits” flying about and fighting with the bad guy actually reminded me of Transformers. Ouch. That is an insult, isn’t it. I particularly didn’t like the ending and what ‘she’ does. No spoilers here.

Star Trek, on the other hand, is very much a character driven story. A complex villain, unlike the cardboard Iron Man villain  coupled with some touching, emotional scenes made the characters human, even if they aren’t actually human. That’s kind of strange, but you know what I mean. With the Star Trek film being another prequel to the series and movies I grew up with as a kid, there had to be something to grab the audience since we ultimately know what approximately will happen. Well, Star Trek had that something: heart.

Good writing, believable dialogue and characters, and some excellent direction by JJ Abrams. So if you have to choose, I recommend Star Trek. It’s an easy choice.