Movie Review: Star Trek 2009

In a bid to breakup my navel gazing and philosophical discussions, and thereby avert a potential existential crisis, I am going to do something I have never done before...a movie review. Why the hell not, this is all new to me :)

I went out last night into Fremantle, had a great dinner and coffee with a friend, and caught the new Star Trek movie. Now let me preface this by saying I am not a 'Trekkie'. Yes, I have seen original episodes, most (if not all) the movies, and one or two episodes of Next Generation. Mainly because I love the genre, rather than some deep attachment.

And I loved it! I am fairly easy to please when it comes to movies, as long as they have a relatively good storyline, enough of the core ingredient to keep me interested (be that action, drama, suspense, mystery, comedy) then I'm pretty happy.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Firstly I think the Director, JJ Abrams was in the position of not having to really develop the characters a great deal, rather outline their beginnings and introduce them. Once introduced, I was curious as to how he was going to avoid the Trekkie's wrath in regards "They didn't do that" and "That's not write according to the books/comics/movies/series". The introduction of an alternate timeline due to the storyline incident was brilliant, and the writers have opened the floodgates for an entirely new series of movies and various spin-offs.

I also think the casting was done remarkably well. Not only are the characters matched fairly well physically, but the actors did a great job bringing out their quirks and flaws...although I think there was one or two too many forced "Dammit Man" comments from Bones, but it was still amusing heheh. Scotty, Uhura, Checkov, McCoy, Sulu, Spock and of course Kirk were all too my mind, perfect fits. And I think it was a great stroke to bring in Leonard Nimoy to play the alternate/older Spock. What a great way to tie it in, and include one of the favourites of the original series.

Now I know I probably don't need to say it, but of course all of the above is "in my humble opinion". But hey, that's what all this is about now isn't it (as uncomfortable as that can be sometimes for me!). So I thoroughly recommend it and will be eagerly awaiting the next one!