Movie Review: Star Trek

I've never been a Trekker. Watched a few episodes when the series was on and enjoyed them. Caught a few of the movies and enjoyed them, too, although I think they kept Shatner and crew way past their prime. I went to the new Star Trek with no expectations at all, just curious about what J.J. Abrams would do to the franchise.

It was terrific. So terrific I went Saturday to a dinner theatre (the food sucked and sitting in an office swivel chair is a lousy way to watch a movie), then went back last night and saw it in Imax format (exciting...but again, the seats sucked).

The casting is marvelous. Each of the young actors chosen for the leads, Kirk(Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and "Bones" McCoy(Karl Urban) and even Scotty(Simon Pegg), obviously studied the mannerisms of their forebears and learned the subtleties of words and gestures that channeled the original crew. The way Kirk sat in his chair, the emphasis on bits of McCoy's dialogue (who can forget his "Good God man!"), the two-shots of Kirk and Spock when they beam into the enemy ship and Scotty's over-the-top excitement all brought a thrill. The appearance of Leonard Nimoy made sense, too, without pandering to the audience.

Yes, the plot has mammoth holes in it but none stopped the action for me. This is a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and makes use of a clever time-warp idea to explain veering from the original Star Trek concept. The camera angles and colors used in showing off the bridge give it a roomy, comfortable feel and the camera work in general plays down the fact that every significant scene is interior or quick exteriors (with the exception of a great close quarters battle sequence outside on a drilling platform).

If I had one significant objection, it was to the soundtrack. There's no way to outdo Jerry Goldsmith's original theme, which is used for closing credits, but I think the composer blew an opportunity to create an outstanding new score. The music is banal and uninteresting at best, which doesn't do justice to the excitement of what, I hope, will be a new series of Star Trek films.