Spoiler - Star Trek Review

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2011)

In the future, mankind has created many space travel advances and is capable of exploring the universe. This film opens with James Kirk's father being killed by a rogue group of Romulans seeking revenge against Spock. The Romulans are a violent species of aliens and they believe that Spock caused the destruction of their homeland. Most of the plot revolves around the young life of James Kirk. He is rebellious and seems to be wasting his life until he is convinced to join Starfleet, the human space command. Kirk, along with the help of many friends he makes along the way, thwarts the attempts of the Romulans to destroy Earth. Main actors and actresses include: Chris Pike as James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Simon Pegg as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Eric Bana as Nero, Karl Urban as Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, John Cho as Hikora Sulu, and Bruce Greenwood as Captain Christopher Pike.
There are a few different themes that I noticed in this film. The celebration of honor, friendship, commitment, and bravery was a common theme. A second theme surrounds James Kirk. This theme was that even a young person wasting his or her life can still become something great. Lastly, one last theme that I noticed was that even though Spock and Kirk are completely different in so many ways, they still become very close friends. The praise of honor, friendship, commitment, and bravery is depicted in various scenes throughout this film. First, James Kirk's father sacrifices himself to save the crew of his ship. He used himself as a decoy so the others could escape. Another scene that exemplifies this scene is that of the Starfleet students scrambling to join the war march to save Spock's planet instead of running away in fear. The second theme, how someone can change his or her fortune, is expressed through many scenes as well. This theme is more aimed at Kirk. He was a troubled youth with a mischievous and rebellious background. Through gut feeling, honor for his dead father, courage, and friendship Kirk saves many lives on planet Earth. He goes from scenes of rebelliousness to later scenes of honor and commitment. The third theme, how two opposite people can become friends, mostly relates to Spock and Kirk's relationship. These two first meet when Spock catches Kirk cheating in a virtual training exercise. Kirk gets to know Spock and later pulls emotion out of Spock in order to gain control of the Enterprise. Kirk does this by provoking Spock. After Kirk has proved himself worthy of respect by risking his life for others and saving earth, he and Spock become friends. Another film with this similar theme is the Fast and the Furious: Fast Five. In this film, Brian and Dominic prove very different in personalities, but with honor and love between the two eventually growing, these two completely different people become like family. Many invisible sounds and close ups were used to emphasize the theme of glorifying honor, friendship, commitment, and bravery. Emotional scenes used close ups shots of characters faces to show their honorable, friendly, committed, and brave expressions at perfect moments in the film. Also, during many scenes, invisible sounds were used to make scenes more 3 dimensional. Invisible sounds of Spacecraft mechanical sounds, colliding ships, wind, and crunching planets are all examples of invisible sounds in this film. The theme of glorifying honor, friendship, commitment, and bravery is something that all viewers can appreciate. Most people strive for these qualities in either themselves or the people in their lives. The producers of Star Trek not only hooked us with this theme, but they did a superb job using special visual and sound effects to drive home the point that much more.