Star Trek

The next movie in the long list of the summer line-up is Star Trek. Already, with J.J. Abrams making it, I thought it would be good. The maker of Lost and Cloverfield (which I felt was the hidden gem of 2008) should be able to make a movie about something I have never seen before good. That’s right, I have never seen a Star Trek movie, or a single episode, but I decided to give this one a shot. I went into with the knowledge that Star Trek fans did not like this movie. This filled me with hope because I felt that if the “trekies” didn’t like it, I might. It was exactly as good as I thought it was going to be.

This amount of quality was good. I’m not going to rant and rave about it like some others would, but it is a good movie. Good enough plot, good enough characters, good enough action, good enough special effects. It was a good movie. But that’s about it. Last year, the “good” movie was Iron Man. I would definitely call Star Trek the Iron Man of this year.

I’m not sure if the story was done in a way in earlier Star Trek episodes, or movies, but it was done well. For some reason I am a huge fan of time travel. I never actually think so, but everything that I really love has to do with time travel. Lost, Terminator (we’ll get to that fucking movie later), SPOILER ALERT: even Dahlia Geisha will have something to do with time travel soon. Time travel makes for great stories. This is why the story of time travel, and parallel universes, and changing your fate was spot on. I don’t want to reveal too much about the story, but it is well executed, and makes for an entertaining thought.

The characters were also well-done. The actors, for the most part did a great job. I never saw anything that Chris Pine was in before but he overall impressed me with his portrayal of Captain Kirk. He seemed a tad too young to actually be the captain of a ship, but his acting was great. Zachary Quinto is a hard read. Spock does not show emotion, so he pulled a Keanu Reeves and did this well. He plays Sylar on Heroes and has about the same role. An emotionless freak. So, right now, it is hard to tell if he is a good actor or not. The other, minor characters also do an overall good job. Anton Yelchin does a great accent to pull off Chekov, John Cho is good as Sulu, the unrecognizable Eric Bana played the villain well, and Simon Pegg was an amazing surprise with Scotty. All the actors melded together to make an attractive, well-acted cast.

This is first and foremost an action movie, in reality. There was drama, and it was good drama too (one of my friends cried at two different points in the movie) but people are going to Star Trek for cool space battles, and and the special effects, and these do not disappoint. From the opening scene you can see that the action was going to be great. The special effects were some of the best I have seen in recent memory, and there was so much going on the screen that it was sometimes hard to follow. The only little thing that I can think of that was “meh” to me is the snow scene in which Kirk runs from two different beasts. The first, a polar bear type thing (Lost) and the next, a long legged… things (but it looked like the Cloverfield monster). This scene doesn’t go anywhere and the CGI with the monsters wasn’t the greatest. I can’t think of any other complaint though.

Overall, this is a good movie. Just that. Everything is good. I hear people saying how amazing Star Trek was (uncoincidentally, the same people who liked Wolverine) but I just liked it. I enjoyed the two hours and nine dollars spent on it. It was a good time and a fun ride.

Yes, I am unconditionally harsh on movies. I don’t pull any punches back and judge every movie very hard, but I like movies better this way and can not conceive the type of people that like every movie they see (and trust me, there’s plenty of them). If you want my honest opinion on movies keep reading these. If you want someone who makes you feel good about a movie you liked I’m not your guy. See you next time for Terminator Salvation. ANOTHER SPOILER: I DID NOT LIKE IT!