Five Minute Review: Star Trek
I finally got around to seeing the latest Star Trek movie last Tuesday (an admission that probably shoots all kinds of holes in my “geek” credentials) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I also tried to write a comprehensive review, but lost it when the iPod Touch lost its wi-fi connection for a moment. So here’s my review, in brief.
The Bad: Old Spock’s backstory made no sense, although I did like the destruction if Romulus — this seemed, to me, to be a kind of “middle finger” directed at the previous Trek movie, Nemesis.
Amanda Grayson’s death, while it served to set up Young Spock’s emotional turmoil, seemed “tacked on,” and was the change in canon I objected to the most. Oddly, I’m totally okay with the fact that two canon-critical planets were destroyed in the film.
Scotty’s “transwarp beaming” was just too far-fetched for my tastes.
And lastly: if one drop of “red matter” can create a planet-destroying singularity, and if at the end of the movie a massive ball of the stuff catalyzes the creation if a black hole…how bloody massive should that black hole have been, and how bloody powerful is the Enterprise’s warp core that its detonation can push the ship clear of said black hole’s gravity well?
I mean, it’s only antimatter.
The Good: the rest of the movie.
Yes, this was a J. J. Abrams picture, and so was in part driven by a poorly-explained MacGuffin (“red matter”)…but in a muted way. There weren’t too many twists and turns in the story, or in the character arcs, and the characters were nicely developed and well-acted.
Zachary Quinto was superb as (and eerily resemblant of) Spock. Chris Pine was superb as Kirk, and resembles William Shatner in a kind of spiritual way. Karl Urban was a tone-perfect, intense McCoy. And I think I like Anton Yelchin’s enthusiastic take on Chekov more than Walter Koenig’s rendition of the character.
And Bruce Greenwood is a great Captain Pike, as expected.
The opening sequence is taught and heart-wrenching; it also develops it’s characters very well for such a brief sequence. It could almost be a standalone episode, for it’s quality.
The effects are top notch, and the “new” Enterprise is gorgeous. Abrams also makes keen use of sound editing in some spots, selectively using silence in exterior space visuals to amplify the emotional impact of the scene. Likewise, a sense of epic scale previously missing from Trek lore — but essential to really great sci-fi — is present in this film, and used to great (read: planet-shattering) effect.
And it’s a good story, overall, that doesn’t really lag in any parts. Even the Academy/training sequences (which could have been substantial pitfalls) move past at a steady, engaging pace.
Impressions: an imperfect but still enjoyable movie, but an excellent reboot of the Trek franchise. This movie needed to be made.
It’s not as good as the two Nicholas Meyer films — Star Treks II and VI — but I’d rank it third on my list of favourites (behind the two mentioned above, and in the same order).
And I look forward to the sequel, which had already (or so I understand) been greenlit. Origin stories, operating under the burden of having to spend time on character introductions, have to tell more compact tales. Follow-up movies are not so limited.
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