Holy moly! I cannot believe I forgot to mention that I have seen the new Star Trek movie titled Star Trek. I saw it in it’s second week. It was tricky for me to get the ride to Pocatello, but I finally got my mom to drive me up. I told her that it would mean a free lunch and movie. I expected to go with her and her husband, but to my surprise, when I jumped into the van, he wasn’t there. Instead, my Grandma was there, she asked: "so, what movie are we going to see?"
So, true to his promise, JJ Abrams decided to make the movie more appealing to Star Wars fans. Star Wars fans, as you know are brainless idiots who know nothing about plot, and story development. Sad, but true. Yet, he still had to make us Star Trek fans (trekkies and trekkers as well as regular fans, such as myself) happy too. So, there was a plot, albeit subtly hidden and low-key, and there was a semblance of story development. Yippy. I was so afraid for this movie that it would lack any intelligent star trek elements, in favor of the substance less Star Wars style.
I loved it!
Still, there were issues. Cinematography absolutely sucked! Every scene that should have been wide and open was instead zoomed-in and claustrophobic, you can forget about following any action scenes, impossible. I expected way better from jj Abrams, being a fan of at least one of his current television shows, Fringe. That’s the price we pay when we accept people of the T.V. generation (kids raised in front of television screens instead of movie screens), they simply do not understand the visual scope of cinema.
As far as the writing was concerned. Excellent. The movie plays out in chronological order, and the scenes make sense and work together seamlessly. I enjoyed the humor immensely. I believe I caught every little nuance and reference to established Star Trek comedy and legend. I even got a kick out of the red jumpsuit and knew exactly what was going to happen to the character wearing it! Honestly, I think I was the only one in the theater who got that one. Actually, I was often the only one who audibly responded to the vast majority of jokes, though I do remember hearing some laughs from my mom too, in some of the right places, which surprised me (no real reason it should have though).
The acting was great too. The new cast filled shoes many thought were too big to fill. Chris Pine is James T. Kirk, there’s no question about that. And, the actors who portrayed Chekov, Bones, and Scotty were beyond totally awesome. I love their renditions! And of course, the actors who were Spock, Uhura, and Sulu were awesome too. My only criticism as far as the acting was concerned was with Leonard Nimoy. His performance reminds me of Harrison Ford’s "performance" of Indiana Jones in the sucky crystal skull farce, though to be sure, Nimoy was way better comparatively. Though not as bad as Ford’s last Jones, Nimoy’s Spock appeared, to me, distracted by Nimoys glee of returning as Spock. Also, I wish there had been more of Winnona Ryder in the film. I am still baffled as to why someone so young was cast as someone so old let alone for such a small, trivial role. If anything, Serek’s actor should have been younger given the immortality of Valcans.
I didn’t care much for Zachary Quinto’s Valcan salute, It was too limp. Sharpen that up next time Mr. Quinto!
And let’s not forget the Enterprise. For many people, the concept of a device or prop as a character is hard to understand outside the movie industry. As a result, I read a lot of negative criticism long before the movie’s release about how fans expected the films Enterprise to match the series’s Enterprise (since it takes place before and during the series timeline), or they just would not stand for it. Well, I was not one of those people, and, for one, I was glad to see that not only do we have new looks to all our old people characters, we got a new look to our old space ship character. It was awesome too. Way more realistic to me than some of the other versions (though, I have to admit, each rendition of the Enterprise has fit with it’s respective role).
And, was I the only one who noticed that the sequence where the Klingon (yes Klingon) ship is destroyed was the same shot used in my all-time favorite Star Trek movie ever, Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country and one of the next generation features that I cannot remember (was it Insurrection or maybe Nemesis???)? That makes three movies that particular explosion has been depicted.
The musical score left some to be desired. The new theme song was reminiscent of both the original series’s theme and the established movie themes, but it wasn’t as catchy and didn’t flow so well. This may be a factor of the film that could grow on me, only time will tell. I kept wanting to whistle along as though it were the original theme, but it didn’t mesh. Well oh!
Over all, I enjoyed Star Trek, it was well worth the 3 admissions and the 2 hour (round trip) transit just so I could see it. (And even the 40 minute wait after the scheduled show time-I’m still pissed off about how late that theater started the film!)
Live long and prosper.
