Visuals Will Leave You Stunned.

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2009)

By far Star Trek is the greatest movie adventure of all time. The story of Star Trek and its Enterprise crew should be well known by now, but in case you were hiding in a cave... The Enterprise is a starship from Earth's 25 century and the crew's mission is to seek out new life and to boldly go where no man has gone before. Way back in the day, 1966, came the Star Trek television series. Then in 1979 came Star Trek The Motion Picture. Now in 2009 we have Star Trek which follows those original characters of Captain Kirk and the Vulcan Spock, only this time we're getting a fresh new batch of actors.
This film allows us to explore Kirk and Spock before they have become their legendary selves. We meet James Kirk and learn how he was challenged from his home in Iowa into joining Starfleet, equivalent to our NASA today. We meet Spock who is tortured between his Vulcan heritage and his human nature and emotions. The other characters also come into our view for "the first time" and even though the actors faces are fresh the characters are very familiar. This is quite a challenge to the actors playing them and an equal challenge to real fans of the series who have embedded themselves and love of the characters with those original actors.
For Trek fans you're going to love this movie. It is fresh yet familiar. There is lots of new material here to keep you going for two hours. It is great to see this reboot of the characters and see them unfold from the beginning again. You'll love seeing Spock and Kirk save the galaxy for the first time. However, also for Trek fans the reboot isn't going to be able to follow every reference or look and act the same as it did in 1966 or 1979. When the series first rebooted itself with the 1979 release, little was thought about making everything match the t.v. series – thank god. It worked great. So hopefully Trek fans will see the choices made in 2009 as reasonable ones.
For normal movie goers this film is a marvel of modern CGI and everything looks so real that it is hard to believe that it is not real. It is a gorgeous looking film and that is hard to argue. J.J. Abrams, the film's director has done a remarkable job in getting this project off the ground and also pulling this movie together considering the special effects. It's almost like pulling a movie out of thin air. Just as the model making was incredible in the earlier films it is the computer imaging that makes this movie look breathtaking.
The acting in the film is a bit uneven and unbalanced. The actors certainly had enough reference material to pull from and while I wasn't looking for any type of impersonations from the actors, the characters are pretty much set in stone from the books and previous movies. This might be where Trek fans are most critical. From a non Trek point of view, the development could have been much deeper that it was. One of the surprise performances comes from Simon Pegg who plays Scotty, the ship's engineer. His delivery and skill takes many of the scenes that he is in.
As fir Chris Pine (James Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock), their chemistry together has a certain flair, but the spark never ignites fully. They play their parts very light without letting themselves go too deep into these characters. The tension of friendship is there but at times I just wasn't convinced that these guys had the bravado necessary to save the galaxy. If their chemistry doesn't do it for you, don't worry. There is still some sexiness to this geeky film. Just like its predecessors, this film finds a way to work in some sex appeal.
I am forced to admit that I am a Trek fan. Therefor I like the movie. I think I'm able to be unbiased enough though to say that non-Trek fans will like this movie too. It is a great sci- fi ride with some awesome graphics, great fighting, some twists and turns and all around good fun. If you're not a fan this movie just might make a fan of you.