Mini Review - Star Trek

Let me tell you about my experiences with Star Trek

Yeah, whilst it took me until I was in my 20s before I watched Star Wars for the firs time, I never watched Star Trek. I think I had an old VHS of it, but it never caught my attention. But in 2009 they decided to reboot the franchise in bring it in the New direction, brought to us by the guy who directed the Force Awakens and Mission Impossible 3, JJ Abrams.

The movie was modestly successful, earning $385m on a $150m budget, not that great, but enough to kickstart this franchise anew leading to a new TV series on Netflix. Look, my schedule’s pretty packed, I may get to discovery some-when down the line but not in the near future.

So how did my first foray in Star Trek work out? Quite well as it happens.

Rather than simply ignoring past continuity, Star Trek goes the sci-fi route and uses the basis for the reboot as a plot point. Captain Nero (Eric Bana) had witnessed the destruction of his home planet Romulus, and holds Spock accountable, he travels back in time thanks to a black hole, I think, and his mere presence begins temporal meddling that alters the timeline, for example killing Kirk’s father George

So rather than Shatner, he’s Chris Pine now, and he’s shown to be quite rebellious and with a disregard for authority, from what I hear that’s classic Kirk anyway, he’s convinced to join the Starfleet academy, befriending Doctor Leonard 'Bones' McCoy (Karl Urban) he’s also extremely arrogant and full of himself, which puts him at odds with Spock (Zachary Quinto)

Spock is interesting, he’s at somewhat of an identity crisis that he experiences throughout the movie. His people tend to value logic over emotional attachment and well… expressing emotions in general and humans… often exactly the opposite. Throughout the movie he’s trying to suppress his emotions but Kirk can see right through him, putting the two at odds. They have great chemistry in this movie and it serves them both well, Spock is intelligent and a good leader, but Kirk is capable of improvising and coming up with seemingly insane plans that prove their only chance.

But Spock is not the only Spock in the movie. Leonard Nimoy returns as a time-displaced version of Spock, from the original Star Trek timeline. His words of wisdom are little but effective enough and it’s a nice nod to fans of the original franchise in a way the cameos from the original Ghostbusters in its reboot weren’t. 

So, quick rundown of the rest of the named people on the enterprise crew: Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saladana) she’s Spock’s lover interest and someone Kirk flirts with occasionally before finding that out. She also has some language capabilities that whilst referred to are never really explored. Scotty (Simon Pegg) is legitimately funny and it’s become somewhat a pattern that I prefer him as comic relief in action movies than I do his actual comedies. (Though some of those are good too) Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), a swordsman who helps out in one action set-piece before it all becomes about a shootout with Kirk and Spock; Pavel Checkov (Anton Yenchin) he’s the semi-technical expert who becomes overshadowed when Scotty arrives. Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) is the original Captain who’s quickly captured.

Whilst there are more alien looking characters and creatures, it’s interesting that most of the main characters look human, with the Romulans basically being humans with tattoos.

The visuals look great, but the use of lens flares can be a little overbearing, especially since it’s done quite a lot over the course of the movie.

Star Trek reboot does what a reboot should do, reintroduce us to a classic franchise with a modern-day twist, giving us an interesting story with characters new audiences can relate to, whilst providing some off the cuff fan-service that doesn’t detract from the story. The issues I have with it are relatively minor.

Rating 85/100