Movie Review: Star Trek

Let me get this out of the way right off: I'm a Trekker (not a Trekkie, that's just a novice fan). Nonetheless, I'll try not to be a die-hard nitpicker.

J.J. Abrams' concept sounded stellar when I first heard it about a year ago — go back to the beginning of Star Trek and recount the adventures of the youthful crew of the famed starship Enterprise in their Academy days, before the events of the original series. When I got wind of the fact that they would all actually be on the Enterprise together (which is impossible, if you know anything about the Star Trek timeline - all right, all right, I'll let it go!), I knew some time travel was involved.

What do you know, I was right. Enter Nero, a "most disturbed" Romulan who travels through time to exact some revenge. Bad ol' Nero emerges from a wormhole in space-time and then doth events begin to go awry.

Do they ever.

Oh, all right, it's not terrible. The film is entertaining, if a tad boring. Yes, I said boring. It needs to have a good fifteen minutes trimmed. Other than that, it's a decent sci-fi flick. Just decent. There is no groundbreaking storytelling going on here, no emotional dissertation on the essence of humanity - which is what the original Star Trek series excelled at in its best moments.

The actors do a nice jobs with iconic roles, I will admit. Chris Pine carries off a sarcastic, bombastic, and intuitive Captain Kirk; Zachary Quinto fits the role of Spock nearly perfectly as far as looks, and he comes close to Spock's essence, too, even if he is a bit more hostile; and Karl Urban was spot on as the cantankerous, paranoid, and mouthy Dr. McCoy. They deserve credit for honoring their characters while giving them freshness and youth.

For all its cheesy special effects and overacting, the original series of Star Trek was at heart about friendship - and it especially became known for the camaraderie of Kirk and Spock. Even non-Trek fans know that. If Abrams really wanted to "reboot" this franchise, I think he should have put more focus on those two. To me, they seemed mostly interested in establishing careers rather than a friendship in this film.

Article Author: Gray Hunter

Gray Hunter enjoys an eremitical life in the desert. Beer and words are two pleasures in his life. He holds down two jobs while he works at his novels and stories.

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