Not bad, not bad...

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2009)

I was a bit skeptical, but I must admit this is a fine movie. We may even have a classic on our hands. The references to the original Trek are so sweeping that any Trekkie can't help but be thoroughly entertained. While the story is fairly weak and we don't really get into Nero's motivation, the production values are the best we've seen in a Star Trek movie yet. And the really big strength of this production is the characters. I'll just say it: They're all great! Good acting, good dialog, flawless character dynamics. Kirk, McCoy and Scotty are good, Uhura is superb and delectable, Chekov is funny and endearing, Sulu is utterly cool and Spock is simply spectacularly good! Get this crew into a TV series NOW! I'll pre-order the DVDs!
Still. This isn't *really* new. Paramount was not brave enough to do a continuation of the original Trek, but thought they had to regurgitate the old characters in order to succeed. Well, maybe - I guess we'll never know. But it's still a nostalgia trip more than it's innovative science fiction. Also, again, the story is weak. Exploding planets and supernovas. Yeah, yeah. They put that in there because they think that's the kind of thing you put into sci-fi movies. It's "big"! But without a good story, it's not big at all. What the heck is "red matter"? No explanation. Oh well. This is, I guess, par for the course. Most Trek movies, or sci-fi movies, don't have great stories. We'll survive.
But, apart from the story, I do have one serious gripe which, sadly, I've heard no one else even mention: Where's Roddenberry's Utopian society? We don't hear squat about it!! In the original series, Kirk's whole dynamic was about how poorly he fit into the Utopian society of his day, and how this drove him to be a space adventurer. If you want to, you can take this as being implicit in the new movie as well, but we don't hear a single detail about the nature of this future society, or the ideals of the Federation. It's as if Roddenberry's vision of a better future has been surgically, if not excised, then certainly ignored. As a utopianist myself, this bugs me. If we don't have the idealism of the background setting as part of this universe, then it's not a model for a better world, and then the characters are not all that heroic. This way, their actions matter a lot less. The big picture is not part of the picture. Well. Since the movie doesn't show anything, it still might be there. We'll have to see if it is included in the subsequent movies or TV series. I really hope so.
So. My rating of the new Star Trek is this: Subtract one star because it is a regurgitation of something old. And subtract another because the Utopian aspect is missing. Otherwise, very enjoyable movie. Good stuff.
8 out of 10.