Star Trek

J.J. Abrams took it upon himself to bring the original Star Trek crew back to the big screen. Not being to familiar with the original franchise I was curious if this movie would pull me in and introduce the characters to me in a way that would be satisfactory to a non-Trekkie.

From the get-go there are a few clichés, but one can forgive this as the story is well put together and you’re taken on a fun ride. It servers up a good story, with humour and intrigue. Abrams manages to introduce us to the main players in a good way, but I couldn’t help feeling it wasn’t enough. We follow Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) from childhood, and the rest of the crew are introduces as the story progresses. Personally I wanted to know a little more about the characters, but there simply wasn’t enough time to do this and keep the story moving.

The back-story of the main villain, the Romulan Nero (Eric Bana), is explained, but I also felt that some more screen time, maybe showing more of his struggle would have been helpful. What happened to him and his motivations for what he’s doing are understandable. However you never get the sense of who he really is, you never quite reach that slight feeling of pity for what he’s been through.

The movie does suffer from the Jason Bourne camera work during fight sequences, it is at times hard to follow who is hitting whom, but this is not the most sever case of quick editing and shaky camera work that I’ve seen.

Having said all this it is a well rounded movie, and if my main complaint is that I wanted a little longer run time to flesh out some things, and a few shaky camera moves, it ain’t half bad.

While I think the whole cast did a really good job and I loved Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy I gotta say that Zachary Quinto’s portrayal of Spock stole the spotlight. For a character that is for the most part devoid of emotion, Quinto managed to use his eyes and mannerisms to convey the cracks in the Vulcan’s mask. Very well done indeed.

To sum up the movie has its faults, but it is a fun ride. J.J. Abrams has managed to create something new here, and has opened the door for completely new adventures for the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise. I have no doubt a sequel will soon follow.