STAR TREK REVIEW – SPOILER FREE
Posted on: May 8, 200932 comments so far (is that a lot?)
Saw Star Trek last night, and here is my SPOILER FREE review:
Star Trek lived up to the hype and delivered on many things that previous Star Trek movies have been missing. It was fun, entertaining, had great action, and was even quite humorous. This reboot helmed by JJ Abrams was exactly what this franchise needed. He has taken a franchise that has been dying over the last decade, and revived it with a wonderful and exciting re-imagination of the sci fi classic.
From the opening sequence all the way until the end, the movie moved with a great pace that kept you interested throughout without confusing you with useless side stories or plotlines (which is interesting since its the same writers of Transformers, that has so much useless plotlines that it’s unbelievable.)
All the main characters were casted well, and each actor brought a lot of energy and passion to their roles. Chris Pine was great as Kirk, and did so in his own way, not trying to mimic William Shatner’s Captain Kirk. Zachary Quinto was dead on as Spock, so much so I felt like he could have been Leonard Nimoy’s son. Zoe Saldana was sexy and full of fire as Uhura. Though with less screen time John Cho and Simon Pegg played Sulu and Scotty very well.
For me the performance of the movie, was Karl Urban as Doctor McCoy, I thought he killed as ‘Bones’, with his rapid delivery and accent. He has some considerable screentime but wish he was in it even more.
As for the action combined with visual effects, I feel they did a great job and definitely added to the movie, unlike Wolverine, where the unfinished effects distracted me. The different planets, and settings all had different feels to them which is funny because the effects were by ILM, who obviously also did Star Wars prequels, where everything looked and felt the same in all 3 movies. (Randomly watch a scene from one of the prequels, without dialogue and try and guess which movie it is, and where they are)
Being more of Star Trek: TNG fan than that of the original series, I came into the movie with no deep knowledge of Star Trek history pertaining to this movie, and therefore I did not notice nor was upset at any changes to past storylines or character history. I’ll leave that for the diehard Trekkies to argue about.
My only complaints of the movie were that the story was decent, but not too memorable, as only served to tell the origin of the characters and how they came together. Which is ok by me, as I would prefer it simple than trying to get too complicated and failing. Perhaps the sequel will have a more complex and deeper plot now that the origins have been told.
Also the villian of Nero, while not bad, isn’t a great villian like Khan or the Borg. He serves his purpose, but you don’t feel any great love or hate towards him. Eric Bana who plays him, does a good job, but the character of Nero himself isn’t that intriguing.
One thing that I kept thinking of during the entire movie, unrelated to Star Trek, was that JJ Abrams or someone else needs to do the same thing to Star Wars that Abrams did to Star Trek, and Chris Nolan did to Batman. Unfortunately since George Lucas controls Star Wars, unlike the corporate owned Star Trek and Batman, this is very unlikely to happen.
As an added bonus for going to the midnight showing at the Arclight Dome, they were giving out free Star Trek merchandise to everyone that came. Everybody got a free Star Trek T-Shirt, trading card, and iPhone Star Trek case. Here is a pic below. I’m going to give away the iPhone case, as I have a Blackberry and have no use for it. Comment below if you are interested.
I definitely recommend seeing this movie, and the only reason you shouldn’t is if you don’t care for sci fi/action movies. But if you watch movies like Star Wars, Terminator, Spider Man, The Dark Knight, you will enjoy this movie, as it is very well done and quite entertaining. If you’ve seen the movie, let me know what you think below.
I give Star Trek:
- Dennis
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May 8th, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Nice case!
May 8th, 2009 at 9:25 PM
I would definitely rock that case!
May 8th, 2009 at 9:33 PM
Thanks, do you have an iPhone?
Dennis
May 8th, 2009 at 9:34 PM
After this weekend, I'll see all the comments here who want the case, and randomly pick one and mail it to that person.
So right now you have a pretty good chance.
Dennis
May 8th, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Great review, thanks for the spoiler free version!
I love the case as well.
GS
May 9th, 2009 at 2:49 AM
I really liked it as well – it was compelling and funny, had good action, and the characters were refreshed and updated and yet still true to form, I would defiantly recommend this as a fun summer movie.
Oh – and I have a case as well – and no iphone – so two lucky commenter’s will be receiving a case!
- Roth
May 9th, 2009 at 3:07 AM
Love the case! Can't wait to go see Star Trek on Sunday with my mom!
May 9th, 2009 at 6:50 AM
Let us know what you think after you see it!
Dennis
May 9th, 2009 at 6:50 AM
No problem, looks like we have 2 cases to give away, so everyone's chances are even better.
Dennis
May 9th, 2009 at 2:05 AM
I would definately ttake one of those iPhone cases.
Great movie… Got me excited about the potential for more Srar Trek movies. Peole just don’t seem to have fun anymore but they did for this movie.
Even though its not a spectacular scene, the time they had the ship move out the cloud near Saturn (?) showed how much they cared about the special effects.
May 9th, 2009 at 9:27 AM
The movie's great. I really want to watch it again. I usually don't watch movies twice when they're in theaters but I might make an exception for this one. I agree with the review, the movie was never boring, something I assumed all Star Trek was. Of course by me assuming that is dumb on my part but this movie makes me want to know more about the Star Trek universe.
Oh yeah, if I had an iphone, I would definitely want that case.
May 9th, 2009 at 9:31 AM
If the shirt was up for grabs, I'd definitely want that. But I think I wouldn't want to give away a cool looking shirt like that so I'm thinking it's going to stay with the owner.
May 9th, 2009 at 4:17 PM
I just saw the movie last night in Imax and i still have a boner… and that was like 16 hours ago. Im gonna watch it again today at the Paramount lot, not a big deal.
Give me that iphone case.. paaa-leeease!
May 9th, 2009 at 4:27 PM
My brother's Birthday is this week…. He'd freak out if I won the phone case….
May 9th, 2009 at 7:25 PM
I like my shirt, but perhaps I could convince one of the other ThinkHero team to part with theirs? Roth? Jonny? Beckett?
Dennis
May 9th, 2009 at 7:27 PM
How was it in IMAX? Perhaps I should check it out again there? Was it shot in IMAX though? I saw it at the Arclight Dome where the screen is pretty damn big, so it might not be a huge jump if scenes aren't shot in 70mm.
Dennis
May 9th, 2009 at 7:28 PM
Yes, unlike Wolverine, I did enjoy the special effects in Star Trek. Also the sound was also really good as well.
Dennis
May 9th, 2009 at 7:36 PM
I highly doubt that will happen because the shirt is great. Thanks for trying Dennis.
May 9th, 2009 at 12:40 PM
I vote that we take the money for the deadpool spin off and give it to jj abrams to make another some more
Star trek movies. Unlike wolverine these characters seemed a lot more genuine.
May 10th, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Saw it last night, gotta say I was just amazed with all of it, but especially how well they did the characters – when Scotty gave us his trademark line near the end of the film, I about blew a gasket! It was PERfect!
Icing on the cake, though, was that I managed to get my group and I all dressed up in uniforms from the original TOS ^_^ We got all sorts of compliments and pictures taken – one little old lady even thanked us profusely for dressing in uniform, she'd been outside the theater since it came out Thursday and hadn't seen a single soul in costume! It made us feel great, not gonna lie…and our Red Shirt even survived the film! When we go again, we're gonna try and assemble a larger crew, hopefully add some aliens to the mix, as well.
Oh, and I'm interested in the case, too! It's a…"fascinating" design…
May 10th, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Make that three iPhone cases for giveaway – I volunteer mine. Ain't no way I'm givin up my shirt though!
One thing I would amend to your review, though D – you neglected to mention how sexy Zachary and Chris were in the movie. Come on, girls are not the only ones who can be sexy! Can I get a shout from all the fangirls in the house..?
I'm seeing it again in IMAX today – YAY!!
May 11th, 2009 at 3:26 AM
Renewed my desire for space exploration. Full of nostalgia. This is the first movie I've seen multiple times on opening weekend since POTC3. Saw it on both regular and IMAX. There is a difference. IMAX had great sound and the ships are ominous. Regular screen did not reduce my enjoyment, IMAX enhanced it. Worth the extra $5.
JJ needs to do a TV version. Non linear. Call it Star Date or Captains Log…The Continuing Voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
Great transition for new audiences. Reminds me of the Ultimate Xmen series from Marvel.
May 11th, 2009 at 4:02 AM
Deadpool is going to be insane. JJ will get his money anyways. Unfortunately I think he is spending it on Cloverfield 2.
Hopefully the genuine character observation will influence future summer action releases.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:55 AM
Thanks for adding your iPhone Star Trek Case to the giveaway!
Didn't know you liked it so much you are seeing it again in IMAX.
Dennis
May 11th, 2009 at 5:57 AM
That's really cool that people were taking pictures with you guys, that's awesome! Did you guys take any pictures yourself? If so, post them here!
Dennis
May 11th, 2009 at 8:35 PM
My girlfriend couldn't stop talking about Pine after the movie. Im not a girl, but I wish i was because of Pine so these feelings I have don't complicate my life… wait what? But yeah, movie is full of awe:)
May 11th, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Awesome movie, i haven't felt that excited leaving a movie theater since i saw raiders of the lost arc as a kid. Chris Pine totally has that young Harrison Ford/Kurt Russel vibe to him. Thats a pretty sweet iphone case!!
May 11th, 2009 at 10:45 PM
would love the case!
May 12th, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Hey everyone here are the winners!
http://www.thinkhero.com/2009/05/12/star-trek-iph...
Dennis
May 16th, 2009 at 6:23 PM
[...] everyone, I want to thank everyone who came to the site and read the Star Trek review (http://www.thinkhero.com/2009/05/08/star-trek-review-spoiler-free/) and commented. We had 3 Star Trek iPhone cases to give away (thanks to myself, Roth, and [...]
May 18th, 2009 at 3:41 PM
Doh, wrote my "review" over on another page. Here is a revised version:
I finally saw the movie at the IMAX yesterday and really enjoyed it. Being a long time trekker, I think they did a good job with this "reboot" of the franchise. The characters played off each other really well, the action was a bit fast at times but well done, the CGI was really good, …and it was fun! The trick of having it all happen in some parallel time line and thus not having to adhere to the massive existing history of Star Trek was a good idea. All that has gone before is still valid, yet they get a fresh start in this timeline. It remains to be seen what they will do with it — hopeful not too many crossovers.
I had some issues with it too. I feel they played a little fast and loose with the technology. Transporting onto a ship moving at warp light years away? C'mon. Some of the ship interiors looked like they were shot in a factory and the door on the ice planet was a standard push/lock like you'd see at a school or auditorium (then there was the little rocky ewok gnome, but that is another story). Also, having Spock "Prime" (is that like Optimus?) come in an save the day like Gandalf was a bit of a crutch. I'm not sure yet how I feel about (new) Spock and Uhura being an item, seems wrong somehow. Lisa made a good point that while in the beginning you could sympathize with the villain Romulan character, by the end of the movie he kept acting like such a jerk that it all went out the window. No great dynamic like Kirk and Khan from Star Trek II. But the dynamic between (new) Kirk and Spock and Bones partially made up for that.
I do like how Abrams kind of gave things a bit of a "Galactica" look when shooting the space sequences, though not so much that it was too obvious. All in all, worth seeing in the theater, esp. in IMAX, and a good start to a hopefully reinvigorated series. I hope these actors like their roles because let's face it, they'll be going to Star Trek conventions for the rest of their lives!
May 18th, 2009 at 9:09 PM
Yes, those actors will be set for life, as long as they keep doing Star Trek movies, Then as the get older they can just goto conventions to get appearance and autograph fees.
Dennis