Sam's Review: Star Trek

No need to fear Trekkies, Star Trek is in good hands, and I would have been the last person to guess it. Months ago seeing the teasers for Star Trek which opened last Thursday, I scoffed and thought, “That Abrams sonofabitch is going to butcher it into some sort of island puzzle Alias bullshit.” Buy you know what, he made a really fun movie.

This version of Star Trek begins with the original crew getting introduced one by one focusing on, of course, James T. Kirk who is played by Chris Pine. The origins of the movie also focus a lot on Spock who is played by Heroes’ Zachary Quinto. The plot of the movie is pretty simple and standard for an action movie . There’s a planet in trouble, a bad guy (played a bit over the top by Eric Bana), Star Fleet has to kick some ass. But there are some nice twists in it including time travel which allows the movie to really change the original origin story of the entire crew. It also allows us to (LITTLE SPOILER) meet future Spock played by Leonard Nemoy who played the pointy eared badass in the original series.

So the real fun in this movie comes from its self-awareness and its action sequences. No, there isn’t any cinema changing action like that found in the Matrix or anything but it moves fast and is fun. I mean, Sulu (played by Harold and Kumar’s John Cho) uses a samurai sword on a giant drill. Convinced to see it yet?

The banter between characters in the movie is also a surprising treat. There are a few references that would give any Trek fan a laugh and even if you’re not familiar with the series, you should have heard “Live long and prosper” in your lifetime. Chris Pine’s performance as Kirk really surprised me because I thought they were just looking to put a pretty face in that role but he stepped up and was funny when he had to be and captain-like when he needed to. No, he was not as all over the place as Shatner, but who is?

In my opinion the two best things in this movie were Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg. As mentioned before Quinto played a pitch perfect Spock, which was probably a more daunting task than finding a suitable Kirk. Spock is a character without emotion, yet still has to have some cause he’s part human. Spock’s a tough role to play, especially since he’s so beloved. Besides Quinto’s great performance the show was really stolen by Simon Pegg who plays Scotty. Pegg first appears in the movie a bit late and isn’t used that much, but when he is, he is hilarious. Abrams direction knocked himself off my list of “people who are loved but I really don’t care too much for” list. I can’t wait to see this crew come back in a sequel. With more Quinto and Pegg it should be a fun ride.
A-
Notes:
-Uhura’s (Zoe Saldana) job of being really hot was a success
-More Pegg PLEASE!
-Karl Urban had a nice turn as Dr. McCoy, I also must say he looks a lot like him.