Star Trek
I told you not to eat my last bag of cheetos!When they said "This isn't your father's Star Trek," I was hooked. All I remembered of old Star Trek episodes was how cheesy they were. I always wondered how it was so interesting when one of the plot lines for an episode concerned rapidly reproducing furry animals called "Tribbles." I'm not making this up. Here is a picture from the episode:
So I'm thinking to myself, how can this (see picture above) be a summer blockbuster? Easy. Just have J.J. Abrams direct it.
The movie starts out with a giant version of the Toy Story claw coming out of a black hole,
and proceeds with an exciting battle involving the claw and the Kelvin ship that has a Chris Pine look-a-like running it after a quick change in command. You eventually hear the name Kirk thrown around and realize that this is the Kirk's father, and then get pulled in as the battle rages on. You see Kirk's birth, how his name was chosen, and then the movie fast forwards to his days of being a young troublemaker. Apparently in the future it is quite a challenge to pull over a 12 year-old driving a car, despite all the improved technology.
The story really takes off when young Spock is introduced. I was super impressed by the ways Vulcans are tested in little circular computer dugouts. I wish we had those in high school. Anyway, Spock is conflicted because he is half human and has a harder time controlling his emotions. He decides to break away from the Vulcan society when he grows up and instead takes a position at Starfleet. I would, too, because he basically goes from being the least intelligent person in the group to being the smartest person out of the entire Starfleet station. Good choice.
Kirk eventually grows up and agrees to join Starfleet as well. He quickly makes friends with Eomer from Lord of the Rings and finds himself butting heads with Spock when they meet. This makes sense since Kirk is an act before you think kind of guy and Spock is a think out every possible path and then choose kind of person, but apparently, they are supposed to be BFFs in the original series, so something is up.
The plot gets crazier as the Starfleet trainees are thrusted into being crew members when the planet Vulcan sets off a distress signal. Kirk is the only one who seems to know what is going on, but it is hard to take him seriously when Bones keeps injecting him with new serums that he continues to have comical allergic reactions to, including ridiculously swollen hands. The captain eventually listens to him, but of course it is too late, and now everyone has to pull together to defeat the bad guy. I don't think anyone would realize Eric Bana plays Nero (head bad guy) unless someone told them ahead of time. Make-up did a good job:
The rest of the movie involves sky-diving, fencing, a random ice creature that lookls like a mouth on legs, drops of red matter destroying whole planets, time travel (Of course. It wouldn't be J.J. Abrams without time travel.), and this friendly face:
My favorite part of this movie were the characters, which is funny, because that is one part that probably stayed similar to the original series. Spock seemed more of the focus in this movie than Kirk. His constant struggle with trying to remain indifferent despite his inclination towards human emotions was gripping, although at times I don't think Zachary Quinto quite lived up to the acting needed behind the role. He did a good job most of the time, though, and he obviously looked the part. I don't think anyone would dispute that.
I loved Chekov! Jessica told me she wished she had a Chekov to follow her all day because he was so cute and helpful in an endearing way. I like when he is running around the ship yelling "I can do that!" when they need to beam some people up in an emergency. I was also thrilled to see Simon Pegg in this movie. I had heard he was in it, but when the movie was halfway through and I hadn't seen him, I figured I read something wrong. However, he showed up when I least expected it and was as funny as ever. Between his harsh but loving commands to his assistant and his amusing commentary on the rest of the crew, Simon Pegg really nailed it. He doesn't really look like the old Scotty, but hopefully he kept the personality the same.
One thing I really did NOT like about this movie was Winona Ryder. Why was she in this? She was supposed to play Spock's mother, but the character is supposed to be well into her 50's or 60's. They made Ryder up to look old, but it seemed so out of place. The role was so small that I feel they could have hired a random old lady off the street to do it and come out with a better result.
When the movie was over, I found myself wanting more. I feel they could easily turn out a couple more movies with this cast and where they left off with the plot. I would definitely see any sequels. I'm even tempted to watch some of the original Star Trek episodes and movies. I would give this film 4 stars because it was a great revival, but could still use a little tweaking here and there with the acting and storyline. I felt all the scenes on the ice planet were really boring, even if they did involve Leonard Nemoy and Simon Pegg. The random animal attack was so unnecessary, and Nemoy's dialogue came across kind of flat even though it was great to see an original cast member.
I'll leave you with a picture of the new cast compared with the original just for fun. I thought it would take me awhile to find something like this, but it was actually on the first page of images related to the movie.
So I'm thinking to myself, how can this (see picture above) be a summer blockbuster? Easy. Just have J.J. Abrams direct it.
The movie starts out with a giant version of the Toy Story claw coming out of a black hole,
and proceeds with an exciting battle involving the claw and the Kelvin ship that has a Chris Pine look-a-like running it after a quick change in command. You eventually hear the name Kirk thrown around and realize that this is the Kirk's father, and then get pulled in as the battle rages on. You see Kirk's birth, how his name was chosen, and then the movie fast forwards to his days of being a young troublemaker. Apparently in the future it is quite a challenge to pull over a 12 year-old driving a car, despite all the improved technology.The story really takes off when young Spock is introduced. I was super impressed by the ways Vulcans are tested in little circular computer dugouts. I wish we had those in high school. Anyway, Spock is conflicted because he is half human and has a harder time controlling his emotions. He decides to break away from the Vulcan society when he grows up and instead takes a position at Starfleet. I would, too, because he basically goes from being the least intelligent person in the group to being the smartest person out of the entire Starfleet station. Good choice.
Kirk eventually grows up and agrees to join Starfleet as well. He quickly makes friends with Eomer from Lord of the Rings and finds himself butting heads with Spock when they meet. This makes sense since Kirk is an act before you think kind of guy and Spock is a think out every possible path and then choose kind of person, but apparently, they are supposed to be BFFs in the original series, so something is up.
The plot gets crazier as the Starfleet trainees are thrusted into being crew members when the planet Vulcan sets off a distress signal. Kirk is the only one who seems to know what is going on, but it is hard to take him seriously when Bones keeps injecting him with new serums that he continues to have comical allergic reactions to, including ridiculously swollen hands. The captain eventually listens to him, but of course it is too late, and now everyone has to pull together to defeat the bad guy. I don't think anyone would realize Eric Bana plays Nero (head bad guy) unless someone told them ahead of time. Make-up did a good job:
The rest of the movie involves sky-diving, fencing, a random ice creature that lookls like a mouth on legs, drops of red matter destroying whole planets, time travel (Of course. It wouldn't be J.J. Abrams without time travel.), and this friendly face:
My favorite part of this movie were the characters, which is funny, because that is one part that probably stayed similar to the original series. Spock seemed more of the focus in this movie than Kirk. His constant struggle with trying to remain indifferent despite his inclination towards human emotions was gripping, although at times I don't think Zachary Quinto quite lived up to the acting needed behind the role. He did a good job most of the time, though, and he obviously looked the part. I don't think anyone would dispute that.
I loved Chekov! Jessica told me she wished she had a Chekov to follow her all day because he was so cute and helpful in an endearing way. I like when he is running around the ship yelling "I can do that!" when they need to beam some people up in an emergency. I was also thrilled to see Simon Pegg in this movie. I had heard he was in it, but when the movie was halfway through and I hadn't seen him, I figured I read something wrong. However, he showed up when I least expected it and was as funny as ever. Between his harsh but loving commands to his assistant and his amusing commentary on the rest of the crew, Simon Pegg really nailed it. He doesn't really look like the old Scotty, but hopefully he kept the personality the same.
One thing I really did NOT like about this movie was Winona Ryder. Why was she in this? She was supposed to play Spock's mother, but the character is supposed to be well into her 50's or 60's. They made Ryder up to look old, but it seemed so out of place. The role was so small that I feel they could have hired a random old lady off the street to do it and come out with a better result.When the movie was over, I found myself wanting more. I feel they could easily turn out a couple more movies with this cast and where they left off with the plot. I would definitely see any sequels. I'm even tempted to watch some of the original Star Trek episodes and movies. I would give this film 4 stars because it was a great revival, but could still use a little tweaking here and there with the acting and storyline. I felt all the scenes on the ice planet were really boring, even if they did involve Leonard Nemoy and Simon Pegg. The random animal attack was so unnecessary, and Nemoy's dialogue came across kind of flat even though it was great to see an original cast member.
I'll leave you with a picture of the new cast compared with the original just for fun. I thought it would take me awhile to find something like this, but it was actually on the first page of images related to the movie.
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