I’ve been fortunate enough to catch three movies on my “watchlist” in the past week: Wolverine, Flight 666 (Iron Maiden doco) and Star Trek. I’ve been a bit slack on blogging movies I’ve seen recently, having not bothered to record my thoughts on Role Models or Zack and Miri Make A Porno. I may well have continued slacking, but The Ascot asked me to provide a Star Trek review for their newsletter, so I’ve been stung into action.
First off I have to declare my colours as a Star Trek fan (but not a fanatic – no prosthetic ears or Klingon dictionary for me!), and also a fan of JJ Abrams. Consequently I went into the new Star Trek movie with high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The writers have done a fine job of interlacing aspects of classic Trek mythology and events into a story that rather cleverly allows for new adventures of a young crew. It’s not giving too much away to say that the script messes around a bit with time, but leaves very few obvious holes to get hung up on.
The cast give magnificent performances that are engaging enough for new viewers, but will recall the original players to existing fans. I have to single out our own Karl Urban for his Bones McCoy. He stamps his authority on the character while still giving a pitch perfect nod to the original actor DeForest Kelly.
Special effects pretty much shame every other Star Trek outing – the budget that Abrams had really shows here as being well above any of the other Trek films, and technology in effects is put to good use. Abrams also avoids the trap of CGI effects that are too obviously computer generated. The ships and planets have a real depth and weight on screen that can often be missed with CGI.
Overall I have to give this a solid 4.5 stars out of 5. There were only a couple of things that prevented this being a 5 star effort for me, but I can’t clue you in without getting into spoiler territory. Rest assured that they are minor nitpicks, and this is a must-see film.
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