Star Trek review

Star Trek movie review

Ok, first, my bogus review I posted on Facebook before I saw the movie:

There's this brash captain of a spaceship, see? He likes beating people up. And he's got a buddy with pointy ears, y'know - like an elf? And there's a doctor on the ship, and this guy with an accent. And they do stuff in the ship, and off the ship, and there's lots of special effects - especially those laser thingies that they call something else. It's way better than "Doctor Who".

Yeah, silly.  Now, the real deal...  also silly.

So, Kirk was basically the way I'd always perceived him on the original series:  Chasing tail & getting beat up a bunch.  He didn't get to beat up as many folks up as he did in the series, instead being more on the receiving end.  His swagger was in full evidence, maybe not as apparent as you'd expect from a teenage version of Kirk,  but still fun to watch.  The scene covering his thwarting of the Kobayashi Maru test was hilarious.

Spock was more complicated, but I guess that's to be expected - he was in the series, too.  

[spoiler alert]

I really liked the Spock / Uhuru thing.  Finally, the geeky Vulcan gets some!  Yeah, I know - he wasn't completely without a love interest in the series, but the arranged marriage deal and the Romulan commander schtick don't really count.  Were there others?  Right, This Side of Paradise.  Anyway, he even gets the woman who shot Kirk down.  Nice!

[end spoiler]

McCoy was probably played closest to canon.  I hope he gets more screen time in a sequel - he was a riot.  Now that I think of it, many of the supporting characters were played mostly for laughs - Scotty, McCoy, Chekhov (not as much).  For Scotty & McCoy, I don't think that's because the actors originally portraying them have died.  Yes, insensitive to bring that up.   Yes, I miss them, too.

It was nice that Uhuru got a more prominent role than typically occurred in the series or the earlier movies.  She had a few good bits, especially arguing her way on to the Enterprise (not that there was significant resistance to the argument, really).  Sulu came across a bit too bland, kind of Harold in Space.

Not that it's part of the movie, but the Saturday Night Live mini-skit in Seth's "news" segment was very funny.  Nimoy delivering the off-hand slam was the best.  

Best scenes?  Let's see...

• Skydiving - very tense
• Uhuru calling Kirk a mouth breather - yeah, agreed.
• "I've got your gun."  At least he was accustomed enough to getting the snot beat out of him that he could produce a snappy response.
• Kirk trying to ignore what was going on in the transporter room.
• Scotty jetting around in the liquid-filled tubes - reminded me of Willy Wonka.
• Kobayashi Maru

On the whole, I really enjoyed the movie, and I'm looking forward to some more exploration of that universe.

[another spoiler alert]

But no more time travel / alternate universe stuff, unless it's in the Mirror, Mirror vein.  Those were the best episodes...

[end spoiler]