Star Trek
Dir: J.J. Abrams
2009
**
I'm a bit of a Trekkie, not an obsessive, I just like a bit of Star Trek action from time to time. I watched the original series and The Next Generation and have seen every film version in the cinema starting with Star Trek 3: The search for Spock. So I was always going to see this film. I really didn't think it was going to be any more than just a bit of fun and that was fine with me and...it was fun! The special effects were fantastic. For the first quarter I was really entertained, things were looking really good and I'd convinced myself that I'd be been giving this a 4 star rating, but as you can see from my rating, things took a turn for the worst!
It breaks down like this; Firstly, it's not all bad. There are some really nice touches here. The inclusion of the Kobyashi Maru test, the guy in the 'red shirt' getting it in the neck on the first away mission, Karl Urban as 'Bones', all fantastic ideas but that's as far as it goes. Pine and Quinto do a good job as the two leads but their hands were tied by a crap script and it ended up tarnishing their performances. Spock was far too emotional and Kirk was far too arrogant. The same problem goes for the rest of the cast too; Anton Yelchin sounded Russian and John Cho is Asian, that's as close as they got to Chekov and Sulu. Simon Pegg is an actor I'm very much going off, so I won't get started with that one. Eric Bana was wasted too but he didn't help himself with what is a dull performance that puts him level pegging with Tom Hardy (Star Trek: Nemesis) as the worst bad guy in a Star Trek film. Oh, and since when was Uhura such a slut?
Anyway, I could go on all day. The main thing I'm pissed off about is the lazy Director/producers/writers (I'm looking at you JJ Abrams and Roberto Orci). They know that the fans would 'nit pick' so they came up with a simple solution. Create an alternative universe so that continuity doesn't matter and they only have to do very little research. If you can't better the story, just go ahead and rewrite it. A huge slap in the face for the fans, the people who made it a hit in the first place! LAZY FILM MAKING!!! This could have been great but it's not, it's just another Hollywood money spinner and we all fell for it again. Apart from the kids that is, who I'm afraid seem past saving and are so used to being spoon fed this crap they made it the big hit that it is! I'm only giving it 2 stars for Karl Urban and because the effects were so good (apart from the bloody lens flare that is).