Rating of
3/4
a nice way to start up the series again
Drive-In Massacre - wrote on 01/15/10
Yep, so I guess this is the new champion among fans, critics, and movie-goers alike. It is very good; one of my top 10 films of 2009, and a nice way to start up the series again, but as you can see I personally don't feel it's hands-down, the undisputed best film of the series.
I must admit it's nice to see how they adapt everything and see what they did to each character, as well as seeing which actors were picked, but it's obviously an element that draws you right out of the story. If you've seen anything Star Trek, you find yourself coming out of the story and paying more attention to how they changed the characters. In fact, the two things that distracted me the most were; the interior of the Enterprise, which simply just hurts the eyes; it looks more like the inside of some sort of blinding cosmetics store and less like a space ship. The other distraction, sadly, was the performance of Zachary Quinto. It seems hard to over play a character like Spock who is basically a neutral, almost emotionless being who becomes slightly inquisitive and that's about it. In this film Quinto is brooding and intense with every single second of film, there is not one point where you feel that there isn't anger going on in his character. I realize Spock is half-human and everything, but complete furious anger as your one human emotion doesn't make you nearly as likable as Nimoy's portrayal. Also, it takes itself far too seriously at some points as it realizes that it is part of one of the most revered works of fiction in the last century. For example, the beginning scene in which it depicts the birth of Kirk is made out to be so overly dramatic, and almost Christ like, that for me, it was just too much.
As I said before, for the most part the casting is great and a lot of the choices were better than perfect. The dialogue is probably the best of the entire series, and the story is very exciting too. The whole movie is fun and fast-paced and has a great tone that some how encapsulates not only the original Star Trek series, but the feeling of the entire franchise as a whole. To put it simply, I can't wait to see where the series goes from here...
