Great Cast Breathes New Life into Beloved Franchise
- Review By:
- PoseyDozer
- Date:
- May 11, 2009
- Movie:
- Star Trek
- Director:
- JJ Abrams
- Released:
- 2009
- Good Guy:
- Captain James T. Kirk
- Played By:
- Chris Pine
- Bad Guy:
- Nero
- Played By:
- Eric Bana
- MPAA Rating:
- PG-13
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Young teens
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first:
- The music. Biblical. Over-dramatic. Ridiculous.
- A long, explain-y scene in the middle of the film. Sure, the explaining is done by Leonard Nimoy as Spock, but still. Quit talking and show us, will ya?
- Uhura and Spock as a couple. Ugh. It's just wrong.
That's a mighty short list considering the task the director and cast of this Star Trek prequel set for themselves — to film a plausible Enterprise crew creation story and restart a beloved franchise without locking themselves in to repeating past adventures. For fans of the original series and the movies with the original cast, watching this Star Trek is a pleasure. The script writers, the director and cast capture the emotional tone, the underlying morality, and the generous humor of the original exceedingly well.
As a whole, the cast chosen to play the young versions of Enterprise crew members couldn't have been any better. Chris Pine is just as we'd wish and imagine a young Kirk to be: brash, cocky and likeable. Zachary Quinto as Spock manages to be both arrogant and conficted about his human side and has a bit more trouble keeping his emotions in check than the older Spock did. Simon Pegg as Scotty is hilarous. Anton Yelchin as Checkov struggles with 'w' and 'v' just as the old Checkov did, albeit with more humor. John Cho is slightly dull as Sulu, but Sulu was always a little dull. Zoe Suldana as Uhura and Karl Urban as McCoy both perform well, though Urban seems a little uncomfortable in his role.
The story revolves around the failure of an older Spock to save a planet inhabited by Romulans. Nero, the film's bad guy, slips through a black hole into the past and spends decades searching for Spock to exact his revenge. When Christopher Pike (played by Bruce Greenwood), the Federation captain at the helm of the Enterprise, is held hostage by Nero, Kirk and crew must save the day. It takes them well over two hours in film to pull it off. We're happy to have them take their time.
- Comment from:
- VinDiesel
- Date:
- November 19, 2009
A fun romp! Simon Pegg as Scotty - what a hoot - it's easy to imagine Scotty as a younger man getting excited over truly geeky things. My daughters french horn playing friend was ga-ga over the music. The interactions between Bones & Kirk at the beginning of the movie were both funny and enlightening. All-in-all well worth watching.
- Comment from:
- PoseyDozer
- Date:
- November 19, 2009
VinDiesel - You're right! Casting Simon Pegg as Scotty was a stroke of genius. I liked him better than the original. Thanks for your comment!
I agree... Not only that, but (assuming there is a sequel or two) luckily, due to the time-warp-y thing, we will not have to re-visit Abraham Lincoln, who floated in front of the Enterprise in an armchair once in the 60's, which was just incredibly ridiculously... stupid; Al Capone, and gangland alien-Chicago which was ... just... stupid; tribbles, which were... well... just stupid; nor will we be forced to watch Kirk and Spock fight in gladiator costumes, which was... well... Nonetheless... I liked the guy who played the young Spock: Quinto. I appreciated that he didn't feel it necessary to show off all the superpowers he has amassed over the years on that other show he is on where he plays Seyler... Heroes. He was much better here... similarly arrogant, but in a humble way.