Star Trek was pulled off the shelf only to be shoved onto a Hollywood factory line

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2009)

THE GOOD
As anyone could tell from the trailers, the quality of the CG is mind blowing, seeing these visuals on the big screen constantly for 2 hours was absolutely thrilling. I caught myself in awe quite frequently. They took an interesting approach to the transporter effect, making it seem more organic than electric like the old shimmering style popularized by The Next Generation. The actors are quite young, but it suits the story as they are literally flying by the seat of their pants for half the movie, which adds a lot of excitement to the adventure. The pace of the movie is quite fast, jumping gaps of years as much as the first 10 minutes of Fallout3, but the pace and choice of years shown in the characters lives were appropriate and played to the overall story well. The sound was specifically revamped before the film was finished in production, and it really shows. From the sound of the bridge bleeps, to the booming gunshot like blast of the Enterprise going to warp, it's an absolute feast for the ears. There is an excellent cameo appearance by Leonard Nimoy, and the way in which the film passes the torch from the old generation to the new is perfectly encompassed in the closing scene to the film in which Nimoy gives a monologue as the Enterprise drifts powerfully across the screen, the monologue is of course the popular intro speech in The Original Series, though there were minor changes made to the words. The ship goes to warp, and I'll be honest, I knew that's how they were going to end it, but I still loved that moment to death, as a Trek fan, it was monumental. The characters are portrayed well with little to complain about, catching the moments of obvious reference to lines the characters would say was a treat. There was at least ONE time when I expected Spock to just start cutting someones head open with his mind bullets (IE Sylar) but other than that, Zachary Quinto did a surprisingly acceptable job at not reminding me of Sylar, as far as portraying Spock, well this is his own take on it, and it isn't uncanny but it works. Chekov and Sulu are pretty alright, Scotty is as lovable as always, and even has an alien sidekick. Kirk was basically as I would have expected him to be, a cocky young American boy with no fear and a lot of attitude, HOORAW! And overall I bought Chris Pines performance. The plot didn't focus much on the villain, which I somewhat liked, since the villain does enough to get noticed such as blowing up planets, also it leaves more plot time to just be Star Trek and not heehaw America kill them space terrorists story that we all know so well.
THE BAD
Ugh, it really is just an action movie with the Star Trek stamp of approval. As an action film it does a pretty great job of keeping the audience compelled, but sometimes there is simply too much fighting and action, and not enough thought process involved in taking in the scenes. I know this movie is supposed to cater to a wider audience, but that's just a wider audience of easily impressed yuppies. For Trek fans, it was perhaps too action packed. The acting was charming and suitable, but nothing special. A big disappointment was that while Majel Barrett was apparently cast as the computer voice, as was the standard for all other Star Trek franchises before this movie, the recognizable quality of her voice didn't show at all, it sounded nothing like her, what a slap in the face. My biggest problem with the movie is the writing. The film was written by the same individuals who wrote Transformers (2007) and oh boy does it show. Star Treks opening scene is a man on duty facing certain death and just discovered he has a baby, Transformers opening scene is a man on duty facing certain death and just discovered he has a baby. Then the character introductions, and so on, I don't want to spoil too much, but watch transformers then watch Star Trek, you'll see what I mean. Lastly, not a big deal really, but the way Kirk meets old Spock is a littleÂ… unlikely to say the least.
CONCLUSION
When you get right down to it, it is just the recycled plot of Transformers with changes made to look like a Trek movie, and for that sake I'm not sure if this film is anymore enduring than that one; For example, at first everyone thought it was amazing, but eventually realized beyond it being on the big screen and visually high budget, It's just a mess. Star Treks story is a little more acceptable no doubt due to the HIGH HIGH HIGH expectations of the fans, Transformers didn't have nearly that much expectation, however the plot in my opinion had little time to develop as an acceptably good Star Trek story. Don't get me wrong though, it's a fun ACTION PACKED adventure, but watching it, you can tell that behind those glossy effects, and the frequent dose of Star Trek reference, it's just another Hollywood movie that came off a factory line. So no it isn't the movie that will rise Star Trek from the ashes, it just put those ashes on display on top of a very expensive stage. I apologize if I haven't gone into as much detail about it as you would have liked me to, but since it came out only days ago from my point of view writing this review, I don't want to give away too much. So go see it in theaters for the big screen wow affect, enjoy, and most importantly, live long and prosper.
1000 word limit sucks by the way