Enterprising

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2009)

I was very hesitant to go and see the new Star Trek movie. Since I enjoy the original series (and the movies) a great deal, I did not want to watch J.J. Abrams destroy the reputation of the franchise. Why make a movie with Kirk, Spock and McCoy? What not make Star Trek with different characters? I was pleasantly surprised. Star Trek has beautiful special effects. Star Trek is eye-candy in warp speed and well worth watching just for the effects. The script was average, but it worked to get the movie going. There is no depth to the story and you will not be reminded of past stories by Gene Rodenberry. There is no morality setting, nor a great chance for character definition. It is a two hour movie and the script must account for Kirk getting command of the Enterprise and the seven main stars (Sulu, Checkov, Scott, Uhura, Spock and Kirk) to be together.
At first, Star Trek faithful will be thinking "this is not what happened in Kirk's life"---etc. It is later that the audience finds out why things are different than in the past days of Star Trek. It is an interesting concept--one that allows for a new franchise to be built without trying to keep the structure of the old series and movies. Now there is a clean slate where any story can be conceived and plotted.
Acting will not stun you in the movie. Karl Urban and Simon Pegg stand out a great deal. You can see where each one of them took something from the original character and introduced it into their performance. Zachary Quinto is very good as Spock and he looks like a younger Leonard Nimoy. Chris Pine takes nothing from Shatner and it shows. He is decent as Kirk, but not great. Pine is the one flaw (and not a serious one) in the movie. He has the cockiness of James T. Kirk and some of the swagger---but he does not have the screen presence and he does not have that "inspiring" command attitude that would make any military man follow Kirk into battle. The rest of the cast are alright. There is more screen time for Uhura and Sulu than in the series. It was a bit silly to have the fake Russian accent for Checkov though--that could have been avoided. Bruce Greenwood is good as Pike (he is always good) and Eric Bana is fantastic as Nero. The acting is not stellar, but it plays well to what was allowed. It also opens the door to deeper relationships in future movies.
I would recommend Star Trek. It is not better than the original, but it is a nice homage to the series.