I thought about writing this review in Klingon, but felt english was more appropriate for our readers. I must first disclose that I am not an “original” Star Trek fan. My review may be better or worse, depending on if you are a fan or not. I’ve seen maybe two or three of the original television series episodes and maybe two of the original Star Trek films. The Star Wars movies always captured my attention more, because of the bigger and better battles along with a great “epic” story. Star Trek had a general theme, but never that one big story, probably because it started out as a television series in the 1960s. I did come to enjoy watching Star Trek the Next Generation, but this newest installment of the Star Trek franchise pays all of its respect to the original series and makes no mention of the several others that followed.
Star Trek (2009) is directed by J.J. Abrams, a man who said he wanted to update or refresh the franchise. In this movie, there is most definitely a face lift and not the Joan Rivers kind. Star Trek has always had its strong cult following, but has never blown up the box office like other science fiction films, such as Star Wars or Spaceballs (just seeing who is paying attention). The highest grossing Star Trek was 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home bringing in a little over $109,000,000.00. For comparisons, the lowest grossing of the Star Wars franchise was Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back at around $290,000,000.00. The most recent Star Trek film in 2002, Star Trek: Nemesis only made around $43,000,000.00. For those of you not in the biz…that’s a dud, especially for a science fiction big budget space movie. Something needed to be done to reboot this franchise. Someone needed to bring Star Trek to the masses, not just those silly geeks at the conventions. Enter J.J. Abrams.
This new movie is actually a prequel to all the others and involves some heavy doses of time travel. J.J. Abrams fans should have come to expect this, since we are trying to sort out what the heck is going on in Lost every week. But, we get to see a young Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) in this movie and it feels at times like an old reunion, except you have gotten much older and your friends much more youthful. Since I never watched much of the older episodes and characters, I really can’t comment on how much they resembled their older counterparts, except that I think some had a good new take (Pegg, Pine) while others went a little over the top (Urban). The movie begins with Captain Kirk’s birth and his father’s death at the hands of pissed off and disgruntled Nero (Eric Bana). Fast forward to the present (which is really still the past in the story, yet the future from current day…confusing, I know) and you have a James T. Kirk who is beating up Star Fleet thugs in a bar when he is discovered by Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) and encouraged to join Star Fleet. From there on, the story begins and it’s ultimately up to this young Enterprise crew, especially Spock and Kirk, to get over their vast differences and save the Universe (I’m trying to avoid any big spoilers in the storyline).
Star Trek is most definitely an upgrade from the previous versions, and I think in a great way. There’s more in your face attitude, fighting and great special effects and graphics. J.J. Abrams has definitely taken a story from the 1960s and 1980s and transformed it into the type of movie audiences want to see today. Yet, at the same time the movie still pays its respects to its roots…if not a little too much at times. Because I haven’t invested years of my life to worshiping the franchise, there were plenty of moments in the movie where jokes when right over my head. I felt like I was the fat kid who wasn’t picked for dodgeball at times, with much of the theater laughing at some line, and there I was laughing along, but completely lost. However, the movie has enough new material, that even new viewers can easily follow the story. In the end, the biggest fault I give this movie is the relatively weak story. While the graphics and set design was great, and I liked most of the acting…I felt the story was a bit too rushed and not nearly deep enough (especially for the new fans). Too often it fell back on the old Hollywood clichés of chip on the shoulder characters, rather than getting a little deeper into these guys’ personalities and thoughts. The entire time I felt the writing was just skimming the surface. Finally, the villain in the movie just wasn’t good enough. For all the crazy evil people that could be lurking out there, all the double crossing aliens that exist in this alternate world, there could have been some really terrifying thug or thugs. Yes, Nero does some unthinkable things, but he just fell a little flat for me.
All in all, I enjoyed Star Trek, but it isn’t the second coming as some critics and fans play it up to be. It is, however, a solid summer flick and a great start to the summer movie season. I give Star Trek a Spork Rating of:
Christopher J. Robinson's take:
I couldn't agree more with the other R. I felt that Star Trek is a very good movie, and it kept me entertained throughout, but I kept thinking that if I had been a bigger Trek fan I would have loved this new installment. There were definitely some scenes and lines targeted for the long-time fans, but enough of the film focused on capturing a new audience.
I, too, thought the the plot was a bit weak and am convinced that the time travel element was added so that the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy) could make an appearance in the film. After seeing Zachary Quinto (Hero's Silar) as the new Spock, I cannot imagine anyone else in this role. He was perfect. At least I think he was perfect. I wouldn't really know since I have never seen a single Star Trek movie before this one and only remember seeing bits and pieces of the old television series when I was a wee lad (and thinking it was pretty lame). I thought Chris Pine did a great job as Captain Kirk, but who can compare to William Shatner???
Overall, the new Star Trek just didn't do it for me. I thought it was a very good and entertaining movie, and many folks will love it, but I have a hard time getting into this genre. I agree with B.A. Roof on a Spork rating of...
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