JJ Abrams Star Trek Movie Review

movie reviews — By Geeker on May 10, 2009 12:08 pm

Last night I lined up to go see Star Trek with all you trekkies. I am not a trekkie by any stretch of the imagination but I have seen at least 5 of the other Star Trek movies and will admit to enjoying some of the TV show episodes. Especially those featuring the Borg, and the Romulans. Going into the new Star Trek movie I had alot of high hopes and expectations since JJ Abrams was at the helm and he had promised to bring Star Trek to a brand new level.

JJ Abrams definitely has delivered a glossy, intense and slightly darker take on Star Trek as he takes us back to the roots and birth of Captain James T. Kirk. It also lays the groundwork for a life long hatred of the Romulans which will no doubt appear in future sequels JJ Abrams is working on. The start of the film is very well done with intense action, emotional moments and plenty of carnage… we then jump briefly to Captain Kirks youth and even quicker into the academy. Along the way as we see Kirk growing up they jump to Vulcan and also show Spock growing up. They pay close attention to the whole vulcan/human angle as Spock contends with his emotions and tries to contend with having a foot in both worlds.

The overall story of the movie is very fast paced, well written and quite funny at times especially with all the great one liners they gave to Chris Pine who plays Kirk. Although he looks nothing like William Shatner he does a pretty good job at portraying the bad boy turned space captain that was an element of Shatners character when he played Kirk so many years ago. Zachary Quinto on the other hand who plays SPOCK actually looked the part and had the mannerisms of Spock down pat which was frankly both fantastic and odd. It was great to see him show off a young spock but in the same token I couldnt understand why you get a Leonard Nimoy look alike but not a William Shatner one? Do one or the other, not both.

As far as the characters go I am quite surprised to say that Zoe Saldana who plays Uhura stole the movie. Chris Pine was good as Kirk, Zachary Quinto was good as Spock but Zoe Saldana really stood out. Not for the fact that she looks like Uhura but because of the emotion and character dynamics she brought to the film. I am not going to spoil anything but the whole angle on her character and the emotional attachment to another one of the lead characters was fantastic. It added a level of human interest to an otherwise very splashy scifi adventure.

Simon Pegg also starred as Scotty and Karl Urban was bones. Simon Pegg was funny but really brought very little to the film since he was in it for such a brief amount of time. As much as I look at Karl Urban and think action star I have to admit he delivered quite well as Bones. Although he did have a few forced lines as they tried to tie him to the original series… lame lines like ‘Damnit Jim I am a Doctor not a….’. A nice touch but done out of place and failed miserably. As for Sulu and Chekov I hate to say it but Anton Yelchin ( who played Chekov ) did ok but John Cho who played Sulu failed. Once again with Yelchin they tried hard to mimick the mannerisms with the original Chekov which made John Cho as Sulu stand out. Even still both characters were minor players and added very little to the film.

The first half of this movie is really fantastic with a great look at Vulcan, Spocks upbringing and lots of action as James T Kirk gets into all kinds of trouble including bar fights, car chases, and gets his first reprimand from StarFleet before he is barely even into it. That said as good as the first half of the movie is the second half of the movie turned into every other action movie out there. No great plot points, no great moments, just alot of action with lots of space action and cgi fx.

The characters carried the first half of the movie and the space CGI carried the second half. Which was somewhat dissapointing. Eric Bana plays Nero the villain in this movie and much like Sulu and Chekov has less then 10 lines in the whole movie and his whole role is driven more by what others say about him then what he says about himself. His screen time is very limited and although the Romulans were done well and definitely give Star Fleet a good beating I would have liked for a more ominous villain. They should have spent more time trying to add more depth to the villain rather then just assuming that cool visuals and dark brooding make up FX would get the message across on its own.

Overall I think it was a good movie, that leaves little room for a sequel but is definitely worth checking out. You will get to experience the beginnings, see all of your favorite characters and how they met and experience Star Trek with FX worthy of other blockbusters like Transformers. My one HUGE beef with this movie, and really my only major beef is the lens flares.

I have no idea who introduced JJ Abrams to Lens Flares but I hope to goodness somebody sits him down and tells him to knock it the hell off. There were lensflares everywhere and anywhere in this movie and it was both annoying and distracting. Overall I give Star Trek an 8 out of 10 even with the annoying Lens Flares