Would you want Bill Gates to design the next Macbook?

Rating: 4/10 (7 May 2009)

Had it been just another Science Fiction Movie, it would have been a good-average one. But it wasn't. It was Star Trek. At least, it was supposed to be. First of all: it was iconic. Oh yes, you believe it. You liked Bones? You get the best out of him, displayed in a nice showcase, not quite worked up to a character but fun to look at. There are lots of anecdotal hints, there is the typical Star Fleet-atmosphere, the interior designs, the costumes, it is just what you would hope for in a 2009 version of Star Trek. And there is Leonard Nimoy - could you want anything else? Maybe some kind of a plot. OK, lets give them the credit they deserve: the plot was made up around instable Red Matter that creates Black Holes. Nobody could blame them for the fact that the whole plot ended up being sucked into one of those. Lets get this straight: some time in the future, Romulus is endangered by a Super Nova. So they ask the UFP for help. Ambassador Spock is equipped with the newest and fastest ship and Red Matter, that can create Black Holes, to stop the Super Nova. But he is to late to save Romulus, it is destroyed. Now Nero, a Romulan mining- ship Captain on board a heavily armed mining ship (why that? nobody knows) gets sucked into the Black Hole Spock created. Together with him. He is transported back in time to kill Kirk's father (revenge, part one), than waits for Spock, takes the remaining Red Matter (enough to destroy the whole Galaxy, just the way the UFP work: give them enough dangerous material to destroy everything when all they need it a handful - or is it?) and destroys Vulcan, moving on to continue destroying the Earth and the whole UFP. He - who along the way destroyed forty- something Klingon warships, is stopped by Kirk & Co, all the Red Matter creates another Black Hole, and it cannot even fully suck in the Mining Ship. Kirk offers his mercy, Nero rejects, nobody gives a damn (sorry) about the other people on board and they destroy the ship. That is it. As I said, it could have been a nice SF-Flick. But Star Trek? I would have expected more. Plus: the Romulans look like some guys from Gladiator, but not like Romulans (they did better work on Vulcans). And ILM did the Special Effects (a good piece of craftsmanship they are). So the Ship the future Spock uses sounds like a Spacefighter from Naboo, it moves like the Starfighter Obi Wan uses in Episode II and the Warp- Effect reminded me just a tiny little bit of a jumping Star Destroyer. Would you want Bill Gates to design the next Macbook? That is what you get here. And don't get me started on the haphazardness that is used to get the story moving in one or the other places. So: watch it. But do not expect to much, if you are a fan of ST.