An Action Packed Thrill Ride

Rating: 9/10 (27 May 2009)

I have always liked Star Trek. It wasn't the original series that did it for me though, that was before my generation and I have never seen it. I have actively followed 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise', though. And I do have an affection for Jean-Luc, even if I have never really watched 'The Next Generation'. I did however see all the movies with the TNG crew.
I do not have to much knowledge of the original series. Nor did I ever took the time to watch it, or examine it's storyline and characters. So flaws in the story didn't bother me. In fact, I did not even notice them. I had seen a lot of trailers and promotional material before it came out, and I was looking forward to it a lot. Usually I have a bit of a skeptical feel about reboots as these. Who can blame me for that though? Most reboots do fail miserably. I won't call any names (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The horror! The horror!)
I did however not feel skeptical about this movie. The promotional material, the cast, the director. They all seemed fit for the job. The trailers are fantastic and got me very psyched about this movie. I had the feeling it was going to be fantastic.
My feeling was right.
It's a spectacular movie. It does almost everything like it's supposed to. The story is a bit messy at times, granted. But this movie doesn't focus too much on the story, something that might turn off Star Trek fans. This movie is an action packed thrill ride. The action is very plentiful, it has lots of great humor, and it looks brilliant.
The ships are no longer sluggish war boats. All the battles are fast paced dogfights. And it all looks really slick. The CGI is truly amazing. And the ships look fantastic on the inside as well. J.J. said it makes the Ipod store look uncool. It does. There's a lot of lens flare's going on. At first I was afraid it would annoy me, but it fits in really nicely and adds a lot to that futuristic feeling.
The casting is spot on. They couldn't have done a better job here. Chris Pine as Kirk is lovely. He really delivers as a young, witty, arrogant lady killer. Quinto is maybe even better as Spock. Creating a fantastic Spock with a fantastic background. Pegg is also great as Spocky, hilarity assured. John Cho worked pretty well as Sulu, but sadly he didn't get as much screen time as he deserved. The same counts for our villain Nero, portrayed by Eric Bana.
This is not to say the movie is without it's flaws. The story feels a bit weak to me. And some things could've been made more obvious. The Narada is really powerful, but in the movie it's never explained why. Which makes it hard to believe it's only a mining vessel. Even if it's from the future. It is however actually outfitted with Borg technology. Then there's the science which has some flaws. Like a supernova happening in mere hours, or black holes that are actually visible. (Which is impossible, since they suck in all matter including light.)
These things didn't bother me at all though. And you can count on this movie to be a joy to watch. It's great blockbuster. It delivers on pretty much every point, and does everything you want it to do.
The best thing about this movie is that it appeals to everyone. You could actually take your girlfriend to this movie without feeling like a geek! I can realise some Trekkies might not be happy with this movie, as it maybe does disregard some of the original story. But really, why is that so important? Star Trek got rebooted after all. Did you really want another disaster like Nemesis? I think not. A movie that appealed to everyone is exactly what this series needed. And it reboots Star Trek in a glorious way.
9/10