Energise
URGA MOTW
Star Trek
Although I'm a big fan of science fiction, I've never really been much of a fan of the Star Trek franchise. I mean, I've seen a few episodes of TOS, TNG, DS9, and yes, even VOY (but only half an episode of ENT) and most of the movies except the last two. So I'm familiar with all the characters and the concept, but I'm certainly not an avid fan.
That's probably why I had absolutely no problems with this new movie incarnation - a reboot featuring characters from the original series played by new actors, helmed by JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias, Fringe). I like this idea - although bringing the 60's mindset and updating for the 00's is something that remained to be seen and proven good.
The plot of the movie is a little hard to explain without spoiling too much - but essentially it's about how Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and Scotty all come together to be on the Starship Enterprise. To ensure that everyone knows this is definitely an alternate timeline and they shouldn't expect any continuity with the previous Star Trek incarnations, there's a bit of a time travel aspect to the story, which is probably the stupidest thing about the movie (ok, one of the stupidest things) but it is a good excuse to bring back Leonard Nimoy for some entertaining cameo scenes.
So how does the movie fare? Well, it's definitely entertaining - lots of decent action (space battles, car chases, skydiving, fist fights, sword fights, etc.) and flawless special effects. The actors all nail the characters and make them likeable and give them a bit of depth - and even the cliche lines (catchphrases, if you will) aren't all that cheesy and bring on a happy nostalgic feeling instead. There are some sequences which seem a little superfluos and stupid, perhaps just to give the special effects (CGI or not) something to do.
The biggest problem: giant, giant plot holes. Black holes destroying planets but conveniently not neighbouring moons/planets in the same system, and not sucking in all the surrounding ships. And then there's the fact that it took 6 minutes at maximum warp for the Enterprise to go from Earth to Vulcan, and yet Nero's far advanced ship does that return journey in at least an hour or more.... enough time for the "middle of the film" to happen. I guess, maybe he's going slowly for some weird reason? Apart from the major logic and scientific gaffes, the pace of the plot belies the film's length (2:15ish) and so you're never bored.
On the whole, this is quite a good piece of work, and I think a brand new Star Trek film with this younger cast (and no bloody time travel!) could be worth the ticket price.
7/10
Star Trek
Although I'm a big fan of science fiction, I've never really been much of a fan of the Star Trek franchise. I mean, I've seen a few episodes of TOS, TNG, DS9, and yes, even VOY (but only half an episode of ENT) and most of the movies except the last two. So I'm familiar with all the characters and the concept, but I'm certainly not an avid fan.
That's probably why I had absolutely no problems with this new movie incarnation - a reboot featuring characters from the original series played by new actors, helmed by JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias, Fringe). I like this idea - although bringing the 60's mindset and updating for the 00's is something that remained to be seen and proven good.
The plot of the movie is a little hard to explain without spoiling too much - but essentially it's about how Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and Scotty all come together to be on the Starship Enterprise. To ensure that everyone knows this is definitely an alternate timeline and they shouldn't expect any continuity with the previous Star Trek incarnations, there's a bit of a time travel aspect to the story, which is probably the stupidest thing about the movie (ok, one of the stupidest things) but it is a good excuse to bring back Leonard Nimoy for some entertaining cameo scenes.
So how does the movie fare? Well, it's definitely entertaining - lots of decent action (space battles, car chases, skydiving, fist fights, sword fights, etc.) and flawless special effects. The actors all nail the characters and make them likeable and give them a bit of depth - and even the cliche lines (catchphrases, if you will) aren't all that cheesy and bring on a happy nostalgic feeling instead. There are some sequences which seem a little superfluos and stupid, perhaps just to give the special effects (CGI or not) something to do.
The biggest problem: giant, giant plot holes. Black holes destroying planets but conveniently not neighbouring moons/planets in the same system, and not sucking in all the surrounding ships. And then there's the fact that it took 6 minutes at maximum warp for the Enterprise to go from Earth to Vulcan, and yet Nero's far advanced ship does that return journey in at least an hour or more.... enough time for the "middle of the film" to happen. I guess, maybe he's going slowly for some weird reason? Apart from the major logic and scientific gaffes, the pace of the plot belies the film's length (2:15ish) and so you're never bored.
On the whole, this is quite a good piece of work, and I think a brand new Star Trek film with this younger cast (and no bloody time travel!) could be worth the ticket price.
7/10