Saturday, September 21, 2013

Star Trek (2009) - Movie Review

Being a Star Trek fan does not mean you have to be a geek or a nerd. It just means you like one of the most profitable Science Fiction  franchises of all time, only rivaled by the Star Wars franchise. I understand that there are some people out there that will say that they hate one of these two franchises, I am going to say something that will make them vomit. I am a fan of both franchises. Why can't you be a fan of one and a fan of the other?

That being said, I actually liked Star Trek. I think J. J. Abrams did a fantastic job breathing new life back into this franchise. He took all that we know about the universe of Star Trek and turned it on it's ear. J. J. Abrams was very smart about it, too.

I don't want to give too much of the movie away because I think that it should be experienced rather than read about. Therefore I will give a couple of scenes that I like but I won't give too much detail. That said I will only tell you about scenes from the beginning to the middle of the movie.

One of the best scenes of the first half of the movie is when young James T. Kirk (Jimmy Bennett) is driving his step-father's (?) vintage automobile, basically joy riding, when he is about 12 years old. The step-father calls on the in-dash phone and starts yelling at James to return the car, James hangs up. A police officer (robot?) gives chase and tries to pull James over, James takes a side road. The road he is on now ends at a deep ravine. James turns the steering wheel to the left, opens the driver's door and leaps from the car. The car falls over the edge into the ravine, but James is safe and as he stands the robo-cop asks his name. The way James answers is pretty funny as he says his name with dignity, and a little haughtiness.

The next scene I liked was when an older James Kirk (Chris Pine) meets Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Bones (Karl Urban). James meets Uhura in a bar. Some Star Fleet cadets intercede in his attempt to get to know her better, yeah like that would have happened, by starting a fight with James. James was able to handle himself pretty well, at the beginning, but eventually the six on one odds caught up to him. He is saved from a severe (severer?) beating by Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Captain Pike offers James the opportunity to join Star Fleet, but the offer is refused. Thinking it over James joins Star Fleet. When he joins the other cadets on the transport ship he sits next to Bones and they strike up a quick friendship.

The third scene I like is the one in which James beats the Kobayashi Maru. The Kobayashi Maru is a un-winnable test in which the crew of a star ship has to rescue the crew of another, but there are several enemy ships surrounding the crippled ship. James has taken this test twice before but he has gained an advantage... he cheated by reprogramming the test. James wins, but he is brought up on charges of cheating and breaking the honor code of Star Fleet. James asks to face his accuser, Spock (Zachary Quinto) comes to the front of the auditorium. The scene ends not long after this, but I still like it. It's also two scenes.

I give this movie 10 stars out of 10. The graphics are beyond phenomenal. The plot and script was great. As I said before, J.J. Abrams was able to breath new life into this franchise. Also, it doesn't hurt that Leonard Nimoy had more than just a simple cameo role as Spock Prime.

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