Review: Star Trek

Star Trek (2009)

starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy

dir. J.J. Abrams

Summer is here and so is the first summer movie (I refuse to count the debacle that is Wolverine). Overall, it's a fun romp and does no harm to anyone accept fro those who dislike the negation of any Trek that came before it.

The script itself is ridiculously poor and tends to fall back on inside jokes for Trekkers or sight-gags for newbies. As a matter of fact, there is too much wacky humor that interferes with the plot. Gone is the moralizing and themes of the originals in order to bring us a glossy piece of cotton candy. But these quibbles can be overlooked when the energy of the film is so high.

The acting is actually quite solid, even though most of the new cast are only given brief moments and the rest of the film gives time to Spock (both of them) and Kirk. Both are well portrayed by Quinto and Pine, but the real standouts ended up being Karl Urban as McCoy and Zoe Saldana as Uhura. Saldana is a revelation and the one character who gets a real overhaul. She's smart, sexy and tough. All of those things that the character should be, but was never given in the TV series or original movies.

On a side note, I'm curious to see how many young people it gets into Star Trek. The kids sitting next to me were totally confused at first when Nimoy appears as Old Spock. Until it was explained they kept making questioning grunts. So the odds of a bunch of 13 year old boys going out to buy the original series or films seems slight.

For what it is and what it is trying to achieve, success. It's fun and not much more, but as the days are heating up it's a great diversion and you get more for your 10 bucks than just two hours of air conditioning. Is it the best Trek movie? No, but it's an interesting start and Abrams and company have avoided the one thing that most people were afraid of. Falling flat on their faces.

8 out of 10