Is Star Trek better than Star Wars?

Yes.

Now let me say that I have forgotten more about Star Wars than most people will ever know, and my favorite movie of all time is still "The Empire Strikes Back", but with the launch of the new Star Trek movie I had to rethink my stance. The first Star Wars movie to me was magical and one of my very first memories. Then came Empire which was better in every single way. Finally Jedi came out in the summer of 1983 and I remember watching it 3 times in a row at the Sandcastle theater. Then came the 16 year drought. Rumors would come up every now and then about George Lucas wanting to go back and do episodes 1-3, but nothing ever happened until around 1997 when filming started. I was ecstatic! When the first trailer came out I think it crashed the internet. Everyone wanted to see it and see more of it. Then Phantom Menace came out, and what a woeful movie that was. Highlights: Darth Maul and cool lightsaber fighting. Downers: Everything else except the podracing. Maybe Episode 2 would be better... Nope. Not even a hyperactive Yoda could save this one. Please let Episode 3 be what the fans want! Once again George Lucas gave us a film that could have been great, but was not. The Star Wars prequel trilogy was SO DISSAPPOINTING!!!!!!! The acting was awful, the story was convoluted, and it never even came close to making me feel like the original trilogy did with the exception of the "Duel of the Fates" song.

Then came the new Star Trek movie. J. J. Abrams knows how to tell a story infinitely better than George Lucas. The Star Trek movie was funny, smart, engaging, crisp and extremely enjoyable. It wasn't a perfect show, but never at any point did I think that something was silly or lame. Star Trek aliens looked like aliens without the need to be digital. They were dudes in costumes!!! George, Jar Jar sucked and Yoda looked fake. The star ships in Star Trek were amazing. I'm convinced that ILM's FX department took a quantum leap forward when they did Transformers, and haven't looked back since. Transformers looked great, but then they did Iron Man, and a new level of awesomeness was established. Star Trek looks that much better, but like the very first Star Wars movie, the special effects were used to help tell the story, not be the reason for the movie.

Watching Star Trek filled me with mixed emotions. It was amazing and brought back characters that everyone knew in a way that was fun and imaginative. And that's what bugged me too. Everything that Star Trek was, the new Star Wars movies weren't. They could have been fantastic and wonderful, but they weren't. The new Star Trek franchise has already signed on for 2 more movies with the same cast and crew. I can't wait! Even if the next movies are only half as good as the first, it will still be light years ahead of those other Jedi guys. So here I am a lifelong Star Wars fan deciding that that which I loved so well was good for what it was, but there is something new and shiny and better. I'll never completely give up Star Wars, but if you hear me saying "Live long and prosper" instead of "May the Force be with you" you'll now know why.