Star Trek (2009) - 9 stars out of 10
I have never been a fan of Star Trek, but this movie is a gamechanger. The “geek factor” of Star Trek is generally pretty high but J.J. Abrams has taken this sci-fi franchise and rebooted it into a dark, cool action film that still captures the intellectual aspects of the original. Even though it has more grit than past iterations of Star Trek, it seems that the Trekkies approved of this origin story. The success of this film begins with its casting. The Star Trek characters are iconic and it was necessary to cast a Spock and Kirk that would not be a distraction due to their appearances. Zachary Quinto (Sylar from “Heroes”) looks surprisingly similar to Leonard Nemoy and Chris Pine definitely looks like a youthful James Kirk. Meanwhile, the excellent character acting of Karl Urban and Simon Pegg breathes life and comedy into the roles of Dr. McCoy and Scotty. And of course, the writers deserve a lot of credit for finding a way to write Leonard Nimoy into the film. The story is excellent, from the progressive crossing of paths to bring the main characters together to the time loop that will send your mind spiraling. This film is unpredictable and it does a good job of building toward many sequels. Finally, the thing that pulls it all together are its special effects. From the time that you saw the USS Enterprise in the trailers, you knew that it would be surreal to see this ship flying in the digital age of movies. The designs of the various spacecraft are interesting and really boost the film above the models used in previous versions of Star Trek. Whether you are a Trekkie or someone who never thought you would be interested in this series, Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek” is sure to grab your interest.
