Star Trek - 2009

Heard the hype, read the good reviews so off we went to the new Star Trek movie with high hopes.

The story is a prequel on how the crew of the first Enterprise get together, with the twist that a Romulan wants revenge, and has travelled back through time to destroy Spock, his planet, and the Earth.

The special effects CGI are excellent, planets, interiors and exteriors of spaceships its all there in spades. The plot sort of holds together but has gaping holes in it of the "and with one bound they were free" type. The monster/reptiles scene where they chase after James T Kirk seems tacked on for no reason, only to irritate. How would a reptile exist on an ice planet? OK might have adapted in some alien way. Both seemed to travel at speed, and a human being is notoriously slow, even hens can outrace us.

The cast was good. I wondered if Zachary Quinto's previous role as Sylar in Heroes would overshadow his performance, but he was excellent as Spock, coming to terms with is half human/half Vulcan nature. Chris Pine as James T Kirk was a whole lot less irritating than Shatner in the original, but that may be because of some of the moralising in the original series scrips. He played the part in a different way but then threw in some of Shatners mannerisms and speech patterns at certain times which added to the enjoyment. The stand out performance was Simon Pegg as Scotty who brought some energy to the film.

Nerd alert. The Romulan space mining ship was a puzzle. I am sure the idea was lifted from a similar ship I've seen somewhere like Babylon 5.

Overall the verdict would be, good as an action SF film, and if they follow it up with another film the cast should develop well. The downside was it was rather a Spielbergian type schmaltzy version of Star Trek so I hope they choose another director next time rather than JJ Abrams. Abrams also seemed to accentuate the military nature of the Federation rather than the Roddenberry version of the future. I suppose that just reflects the times we live in.