Friday 15 May 2009

Movie Review: Star Trek

* Do I still have to put a warning that there may be spoilers in this post?


"Space...The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise. Her on-going mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!"



It seems to be a year for origin movies, what with the X-Men Origins: Wolverine just out last month, now we get to see the origins of the crew for one of the  most famous spaceships in all-time history; the Starship Entreprise.

When I first heard that Star Trek was out, I thought, "Oh, it's just another continuation of the TV series or something." I never got a hint on the movie synopsis or the movie trailer. Frankly, I simply wasn't interested in watching it. But..... I'm glad I did. :-))





[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="184" caption="Star Trek (from filmofilia.com)"]Star Trek (from filmofilia.com)[/caption]

Take the original Star Trek and mix that with some handy-dandy CGI, futuristic vehicles and gadgets plus a dash of modern youngster attitudes and you have yourself a worthy science fiction movie to watch over and over again. For a very mild Trekkie like myself who knew the characters only so-so, it was an eye-opener. How Captain Kirk meet Spock? How did the 'Beam me up, Scotty' phrase came about? Everything you need to know about the team of Captain Kirk is all answered in Star Trek.


It's not serious and full of aliens like I had thought. Well, there are aliens and there are seriousness but the dosage is just right.


Chris Pine, who plays James T. Kirk, captures the arrogance of this trekkie newbie quite well, although I hardly remember Captain Kirk being that much of a windbag, but well, adolescence does make one spiral out of control. Being the hero and all, you get to encounter every scene imaginable, from being isolated on a somewhat deserted planet to puffing up like a toad while trying to sneak onboard the Enterprise and all the way to having to deal with both the present and future Spock (played by Zachary Quinto), who is actually his nemesis.


Yep, you read that right; Spock and Kirk actually started off on very, VERY, bad terms. You simply must watch the movie to grasp the situation.


For those who have watched Harold & Kumar, you must watch John Cho in his role as Hikaru Sulu. His first scene was hilarious!! :rotfl: Another laugh-till-you-cry scene is the 'mispronunciation' of a command issued by poor Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) whose Russian slang was simply too much for the starship to interpret. There are many other funny scenes as the movie plays itself out (my favourite being the sudden appearance of Scotty, played by Simon Pegg) so you'll definitely be entertained.





[caption id="" align="alignright" width="322" caption="Some of the crew for the Enterprise"]Some of the crew for the Enterprise[/caption]

I have to admit that the casting people did a great job in searching the perfect actors/actresses to play the characters. Not a single person was less than admirable in their assigned role.

Though the goofs are numerous, I personally think that the quality of Star Trek in its story-telling, CGI and overall factor is a step higher than X-Men Origins: Wolverine (my deepest apologies, Hugh Jackman). So if you love the Wolverine movie and you're a Trekkie, you'll love Star Trek. :-D


Scotty: I like this ship! It's exciting!

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