Star Trek Review
I don’t get out to the movies all that often anymore, but I will be posting reviews of movies as I watch them here. First up this summer is Star Trek, which Shirley and I watched at the local IMAX theater. I had never seen a movie at the IMAX, so I was not entirely certain what to expect, besides the big screen of course.
I’ll start by describing my IMAX experience…the screen isn’t just big…it is huge. Shirley and I sat in the back, toward the center, and the screen took up my entire field of view. At times, this presented a challenge, as there is a lot of information to process during action sequences. That also meant small shifts from the camera made for large movements on the screen. Shirley had some motion sickness issues while watching the movie. The films are delivered with digital sound and video. Digital sound is nothing new compared to regular theaters, although I am thankful that this theater did not fall into the trap of trying to blast me out of my chair. The sound level was quite good. The digital picture, though, is a very large difference from traditional film. There are no distortions or graininess in this picture. It was crystal clear from start to finish. Shirley and I might see an animated movie next in IMAX, as that might reduce the motion sickness issue.
Now, on to the movie. This is the point I should warn you that this review contains spoilers. If you don’t like having the movie spoiled for you, do not continue reading beyond this paragraph. Go see the movie. You should see it. I will tell you that it is awesome.
I’ll start off with my one complaint about the movie…they have Kirk hang at the edge of a precipice/really-steep-fall WAY too many times in this movie. I counted five times over 4 separate scenes. It is like they couldn’t figure out how to make his action and fight scenes exciting without it. But really, this is a fairly minor complaint.
Otherwise, this movie is 2 hours of wall to wall awesomeness. Usually I am not a big fan of time travel plots. It is often just too darn easy to poke holes in them. But time travel is a staple of Star Trek movies, and there is not a whale in sight in this one, thank goodness. Let me start off by saying this…YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN. Yes, this is Star Trek with Kirk and Spock and the gang, but it is set up so that what we have seen before in The Original Series and all the other Star Trek franchises since almost certainly will not happen the same way. When people initially heard about this before the movie was released, that probably made a lot of people angry. It is cheap to tell people “Oh, everything you think you know about this universe? Everything you learned over the past decades? It doesn’t matter.” After watching the movie, I think they handled the issue extremely well. We will get a fresh look and feel to the franchise while still having the characters we all know and love. Win-win. The storyline was extremely well written, and having a good story is the first step to making a great movie.
The next step is the acting in the movie. This has two parts, getting the right actors into the right roles, and getting those actors to deliver powerful performances. On both points, this film is superb. The acting in this movie was fantastic, and all the actors stayed true to their source characters without being confined to them, if that makes any sense. Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) especially deserve shout-outs for their performances. I am especially glad that Pine captured Kirk’s brazenness and aggression without mimicking Shatner’s speech pattern. Although imitating (and making fun of) Chekov’s inability to pronounce the letter ‘v’ was a pretty funny moment in the movie. My only real acting complaint would be that Simon Pegg was perhaps a bit too perky as Scottie.
The special effects were, of course, outstanding. As was the sound. Shirley would not watch the space scenes due to her motion sickness issue, but could still tell what was going on, the sound was that effective.
All in all, there are not enough synonyms for “awesome” to describe how increbible this movie is. Go see it. Right now. This movie is the one that all others this year will be measured against. And I think that they will all fall short (and this includes my high hopes for “Up”).
Grade : A
Edit:
I will need to see this movie a few times before determining its final place among Star Trek Movies, but here is how I’d rank them, from worst to first.
11. Star Trek V : The Final Frontier
10. Star Trek III : The Search for Spock
9. Star Trek : The Motion Picture
8. Star Trek : Generations
7. Star Trek : Nemesis
6. Star Trek : IV : The Voyage Home
5. Star Trek : Insurrection
4. Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country
3. Star Trek
2. Star Trek : First Contact
1. Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan
