Star Trek review

The year was 1979, and people everywhere were going crazy at the thought of James T. Kirk and company finally coming to the big screen and bringing Star Trek to the masses. It took 10 years for the intrepid crew of the Enterprise to make the transition from the small screen, so people were foaming at the mouth for the chance to see their beloved ship back in action.

Unfortunately for them, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was born, and everyone acted like that ugly baby no one talks about and put it back where it came from. Unfortunately that didn't work, but it made enough money for them to continue to try. 10 movies later, Star Trek had lost most of it's fan base, had a series cancelled because no one watched it, and made fun of the last outing of the Enterprise crew in Star Trek: Nemesis. Star Trek was dead, so it seemed.

The year is now 2009, and J.J. Abrams, Hollywood's golden boy comes off some very successful shows, a resurrection of Mission Impossible III, and cinema gold in Cloverfield. He comes out and says he is going back to the beginning, but not as a reboot, he then declared he didn't really care for the original movies; the 4 Star Trek fans left got mad. Over the past 6 months, trailers, reports and photos leaked out, and as a result, a few movie bloggers got excited. Finally, the weekend was here, and finally, Star Trek fans got what they wanted from the beginning, a great Star Trek movie that would please the "Trekkies" and the masses alike, they got Star Trek (11).

The movie revolves around the early days of Kirk and Spock. Due to an interesting time travel plot point, Leonard Nemoy's Spock comes back in time, changing everything we thought we knew about this universe, setting up a new timeline in which Kirk is not captain, and is most definitely not friends with Spock. As Romulan bad guy Nero plans to destroy the planets Vulcan and Earth, Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew need to find themselves and each other in order to save the world. (I now know how Doc Brown felt in Back to the Future II, I just wish I had a chalkboard.)

First off, I have to say, I have always been a fan of Star Trek, but never really loved any of the movies, until now. I loved this movie, and let me tell you why. First off, the casting was flawless. Chris Pine did a great James T. Kirk, without doing a William Shatner impression, he played a tough, bad ass, similar to what Indiana Jones would be. The character of Kirk was also flawless, he showed a tough guy, but was able to have some humor as well (the Kobiashi Maru test was priceless). Zachary Quinto not only looked the part of Mr. Spock, but nailed the essence of the role, and did a great job of showing an erupting emotion, that the character was trying to keep in check. Zoe Saldana was cast as Uhura and filled the screen with the same sexiness and grace Nichelle Nichols did all those years ago. Simon Pegg was cast as engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and was one of the best parts of the movie, although he did not have a lot of screen time, the parts he was in was pure gold. Sulu and Checkov were perfectly cast as well, showing a good reason for their characters to be there. Finally, there is Carl Urban, who plays Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, easily the best part of this movie, and a great example of how everyone involved got not only the concept, but the characters. Bones was faithful to the original, and also part of the comedic relief that broke up the action scenes. Eric Bana played the bad guy, Nero, in traditional, over the top style that made Star Trek great.

The cast was great, the story was solid, in not just having a traditional reboot, and trying to convince the audience what they have seen over the past 30 years didn't exist, they accepted that, and changed it to give the audience a truly new and fresh experience. You don't have to have seen a Star Trek before to like this movie, but there is enough throwback to the original that fans will be truly rewarded, finally, for all their loyalty.

The special effects in the movie were truly incredible. The Enterprise has never looked better, the space battles were truly epic, and blew away anything you have previously seen in Star Trek and the locales looked fresh, clean, and beautiful. There are a few things that I think added to the movie experience, the shaking and lens flair of the camera. You may or may not see it, but it is an interesting technique that is used in action scenes, and I think is something that will be used in a ton of movies to come.

So, it took me awhile to write the review because I really wanted to make sure I wasn't just geeking out over my favorite characters finally coming to glory, I wanted to make sure I wasn't just biased, that the movie was really as good as I thought it was. I have come to the conclusion, as apparently so many others have (it's at a 95% at Rotten Tomatoes) that this movie truly is that good. If you are a Sci-Fi fan, you will love it, if you do or do not like Star Trek, you will love it.

I give this movie a 9.5 out of 10!

Fun Fact: Christopher Doohan, son of James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original series played the assistant of Simon Pegg, who played Scotty in this movie.