'Star Trek': The Prequel

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2017)

While it was not a perfect series (William Shatner's overacting, less than great production values and an iffy Season 3), the original 'Star Trek' series was a genre landmark and hugely influential and ground-breaking, also a mostly great series in its own right especially for the characters, the relationships and Leonard Nimoy's Spock.
The films based on the original series were a mixed bag. A few great ones with 'The Wrath of Khan', 'The Voyage Home' and 'The Undiscovered Country', one in-between film with 'The Search for Spock' and disappointments with 'The Motion Picture' and particularly 'The Final Frontier'. There were ten 'Star Trek' films before this 2009 reboot, four being based on the 'Next Generation series where the only outstanding one was 'First Contact'. 'Generations to me was another in-between film and 'Insurrection' and 'Nemesis' were two other particularly problematic ones.
'Star Trek' (2009) is neither one of the best of the films or one of the worst, if anything it's another in-between effort while being marginally better than the other two in-between films. There are a lot of impressive elements and some major flaws that stop it from being the great prequel that it had potential to be.
Visually, the film mostly looks great. Particularly good is the set for the Enterprise which not only amazes visually but one of the elements that sticks close to the original series. The special effects are mainly fantastic and leave one in awe, while there is audacious and suitably moody cinematography and atmospheric lighting. By all means it is not perfect visually, there is the distracting overuse of lens flares that was in serious need of a toning down, it was a technique that was abused somewhat, didn't feel necessary in some scenes and is not particularly comfortable sometimes to look at.
Michael Giacchino delivers another winner of a music score, don't remember ever being disappointed by this man. Sure it is familiar, but it fits very well with the film and its mood and is unmistakable Giacchino, a beautiful score to listen to and has a lot of atmosphere.
There are some thought-provoking moments in the script and it doesn't feel too talky which is true in spirit to the original series. Where it doesn't fare so well is the comic relief, there is a little too much of it and some of it wasn't particularly funny and seemed superfluous as well.
Regarding the story, 'Star Trek' (2009) evoked mixed reactions from me. It is rich in atmosphere and has some thrilling moments and truly exciting action, while the interplay between Kirk and Spock is brilliantly written and makes one feel quite nostalgic. Most of it is easy to follow. Less good are some bogus science, some parts that are convoluted and could have benefited from more explanation and Nero's plan and motivation being underdeveloped, confused and inconsistent. It is also too big and noisy in spectacle and could have quietened down to give room for more characterisation. One of the original series' strengths too was the characters and how they were developed and interacted, other than Kirk, McCoy and Spock there wasn't enough of that with most of them like Nero being far too one-dimensional.
Casting is mostly good but with a couple of misses. Zachary Quinto in particular nails it as Spock with huge shoes to fill, capturing perfectly what was so iconic about the character in the first place. Another great contribution is a suitably cantankerous Karl Urban, who remains loyal to DeForrest Kelley's interpretation without being an impersonation. Chris Pine did very well and is certainly more subtle than William Shatner, the character isn't likable at first but evolves and Pine brings that out. Zoe Saldana is fiery and sexy and Bruce Greenwood is good fun. It was nice to see Nimoy again as Old Spock and brought a nostalgic and affectionate element. Bana has some menace and does his best, but there are admittedly far more interesting villains in other 'Star Trek' films.
Not everybody works. Simon Pegg, who is usually a very entertaining guy, is beyond irritating comic relief with Scotty coming over as a caricature. Anton Yelchin has also given much better performances, he badly overdoes it as Chekhov.
In conclusion, fun and impressive often but with some major flaws at the same time. Nothing comes over disastrously though. 6.5-7/10 Bethany Cox