Overrated and needless reboot

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2011)

I was all for watching this reboot of the classic STAR TREK, featuring an all-new cast and lots of spectacular effects. It's a film that's been endlessly hyped since it was released, so I figured it really did have to be THAT good.
Errwas everyone else watching a different film? This is a middling Star Trek film, nothing more. It's mildly entertaining as you watch it, but quickly forgettable afterwards. The storyline is of the usual bad-guy-wants-to-destroy-the-world type guff, adding in some bits of time travel here and there in an attempt to try and make it seem more original than it really is. I've seen this exact same stuff play out over and over again and STAR TREK fails to bring anything new to the table.
Okay, the special effects are fantastic. The film's a winner on that point alone. But special effects don't make a good film on their own. What about action scenes? There aren't really any to mention, aside from one memorable sky-diving interlude. Decent characters? I'm afraid not. Eric Bana, hidden beneath tattoos and makeup, couldn't be a blander villain. Strong acting, right? Not really. Zachary Quinto is an exception as the new Spock, but cocky Chris Pine just left me cold and Karl Urban barely gets a look in. No surprise that it takes an old hand like Nimoy to show them how it's done.
Origin stories always feel long-winded and overly worthy to me. The stuff about how flawed characters can turn their lives around and do something good is so clichéd. The real challenge would be to just get on with the storytelling and show us the characters by their actions, instead of shoving their personalities down our throats for the entire first hour.
Turns out that MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III is still Abrams's best film as director by a long shot and this is nowhere near as much fun as STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT.