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Why Yes, I Would Like Some Star Trek With My Lens Flair
Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 10:03 am by Jamie
The future is so bright, you gotta wear shades.
If you’re one of those people who thinks that there just isn’t enough lens flair in today’s movies, the latest Star Trek more than makes up for that. The lens flair is omnipresent, almost a character itself. There are times where it demands so much attention that it washes out the other actors on screen. And yet, I wasn’t horribly bothered by the copious amounts of lens flair. It somehow worked.
REEEEMIX
Star Trek exceeded all of my expectations. I was initially very very skeptical of this reboot. The trailers did a great job of winning me over, but I still had some reservations. I thought that I would just hate young Kirk. The trailers paint him in a smug and arrogant light. But after only a few minutes of screen time with this version of Kirk, I was totally hooked. The young cast breathes new life into these characters. It’s a refreshing interpretation and a true joy to see them in action. Zachary Quinto’s Spock is more internally conflicted and nuanced than Leonard Nimoy’s version ever was. Chris Pine’s Kirk is just as brash and bold as you’d expect, but there’s an added layer of gravitas and seriousness that William Shatner was rarely able to capture.
Though this is clearly Kirk and Spock’s movie, for the most part the supporting cast gets their moment to shine. Karl Urban’s “Bones” watches Kirk’s back as best he can. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura provides an emotional anchor for the otherwise logical Spock. Anton Yelchin’s enthusiastic Chekov saves the day with his technical knowhow. Simon Pegg’s Scotty works his miracles and steals every scene he’s in. And John Cho’s Sulu has a foldy ninja sword. Hmm… Now that I think on it, Sulu gets the least amount of development of all the bridge crew. We learn about him is that he’s a trained fence and occasionally forgets to take the parking break off when he’s piloting star ships. I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t get more Sulu, but it wasn’t a glaring enough oversight that would ruin the movie for me. I loved the new cast and look forward to seeing more of them.
As for Nero, he’s the best kind of villain, the kind that you can sympathize with even if he’s utterly mad. He saw his entire race obliterated. Who among us, if given the opportunity, wouldn’t want to make things right? We can hardly blame Nero or expect him to simply forgive. Part of us cheers him on. For me, that’s always a winning villain formula.
Time is Herb That Cures All Diseases
The only way to fit this movie into established continuity is to wipe it all away with time travel. It works well, but there are points where I felt it got a little too Deus Ex Machina. Not in a Starbuck is a “well I don’t fucking know and I won’t bother explaining it ever even though I wrote the damn character” kind of way. But the whole transwarp transport bit smelled slightly of bullshit. It’s a big cheat. It fits, but it’s a cheat. Scotty’s intro was also a bit too convenient. I still think Simon Pegg is a great scene stealer, but I kinda smirked at these scenes.
Kirk running away from Cloverfield on Hoth was a bit much. We’ve never really seen giant monster chase scenes in any other incarnation of Trek and it just felt a little out of place. Loved the creature designs, but I was wondering how a giant monster movie crossed over into Trek. Still, it is a giant freaking monster and that’s mostly always a cool thing.
I also felt that the scenes with Old Spock were a touch too sentimental for my tastes. But that’s a personal thing. It worked somehow, but it could have been done differently.
To Boldly Go
Overall, I loved Star Trek. Audrey and I walked out of the theater with big stupid gins on our faces. It’s been a good damn while since a movie made us both that happy. She’s now a new Star Trek fan and is looking forward to what this new crew has in store for us. For me, it’s reignited the flame of fandom. I have such optimistic hope for the future of Star Trek. It’s renewed my faith in my fandom.
Highly recommended for all movie goers. If it can win over my wife who is neither a sci fi nor a Star Trek fan it’s a damn fine movie.
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