Saturday, May 9, 2009

Star Trek - 2009

DH and I went to see the new Star Trek movie this afternoon, and since I made it known that we were going, I am under pressure to post a review. Here goes:

Let me start by saying, I'm not a die-hard Star Trek fan. I'm a Star Wars fan. I have seen a fair amount of episodes of The Original Series("TOS"), but I've seen almost six full seasons of The Next Generation ("TNG"). Though I like TOS, I prefer TNG. I've seen almost all the movies (with the exception of #3 "The Search for Spock").

This new movie sets the story back with the original crew (Kirk, Spock, Chekov, Uhura, McCoy["Bones"] Scotty, and Sulu. We are introduced to a younger crew, back when some of them were cadets at the Starfleet Academy.

The movie starts off the day that James Kirk is born. We are then fast-forwarded to a young Kirk as a rebellious teen in Iowa. We are also introduced to Spock as a child on his home planet of Vulcan. Then we are fast-forwarded to Kirk as a young man (Chris Pine) getting himself into trouble in a local watering-hole where he meets Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana) for the first time.

If you remember your Star Trek, you will know that Captain Kirk was not the original captain, it was captain Christopher Pike. He was in the pilot episode, "The Cage." This time around, he's played by Vancouver actor, Bruce Greenwood ("I Robot", "National Treasure 2", "Thirteen Days"). Taking the mantle of James Kirk is Chris Pine. He was fine. He had Kirk's swagger and roving eye with the women. There was a moment when he was lounging in the captain's chair just like William Shatner before him. He certainly had the looks to play the young Kirk, and occassionally if I closed my eyes, I thought I heard William Shatner's voice. Zachary Quinto (tv's Heroes") as Spock was also a good choice. He had the look to play Spock and the mannerisms. He didn't quite have Nimoy's gravelly voice, but he was fine. Zoe Saldana as Uhura was all right; nothing special. I think she could have been better, or perhaps they could have got someone better. There were moments when I thought I was watching Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. John Cho ("Harold and Kumar") was miscast as Sulu. For one thing, he doesn't even look Japanese; he's Korean. Didn't have the voice or the mannerisms. I think they could have got someone better. Simon Pegg as Scotty didn't really look like James Doohan, but he had the Aberdonian accent and was otherwise true to the character. Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov had the voice down perfect, but I don't ever remember Chekov with curly hair. Other than that, he was fine. Eric Bana ("Troy", "Munich") as the villian "Nero" was unrecognizable. It wasn't until it was almost over that I recognized his voice. Saving the best for last, Karl Urban ("Lord of the Rings II and III") NAILED Bones. He looked like him, acted like him, and had the voice. He was perfect.

Directed by JJ Abrams (tv's "Lost" and "Alias") I was looking forward to see what he would do with the series, since I consider Lost and Alias two of my all time favourite tv shows. He did a good job. The special effects were great. Don't look for some moral lesson which is something one could expect from both TOS and TNG. This was no morality play speaking out about social issues of the time. (If you know the series, you will know that Kirk and Uhura shared the first inter-racial kiss on tv). I was thinking that under Abrams' hand, perhaps there would be something like that here, but there wasn't. Abrams is known for things like that in Lost and Alias, especially moral ambiguity. msnbc.com called it, "popcorn perfection" and I agree.

You don't really have to know the series to enjoy it. However, it does help if you know what a kobayashi maru is. (If you don't know, go do a google search, but I'm not spilling the beans).

Go see it. It's great. I give it 4 1/2 stars out of five.