Flicks and Food

Star Trek

Posted on 05. May, 2009 by Guest Observer in Flicks

(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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In theaters May 08, 2009 | 02:12
Chronicles the early days of the starship Enterprise and her crew.

In My Opinion By Mark V. Fusco: (I rated it 5 out of 5 stars)
Last night I saw the new Star Trek movie. Well done, Paramount. Overall it’s an excellent movie. All of the main characters from the original series are there. And the actors who played them did an excellent job of recreating the essence of those characters. The only exception would be Kirk. If Chris Pine had portrayed the Kirk character like William Shatner did, it would have been too distracting and farcical.

One of my favorites was actually Karl Urban’s portrayal of “Bones.” He had just enough of DeForrest Kelly’s gruffness, delivery, and facial expressions. Zachary Quinto’s Spock was also well done. With him, I was a bit concerned that too much of his Sylar character from Heroes would come out in Spock. Why? Because both Sylar and Spock can be very unemotional. When I saw who was playing Spock, I immediately thought he was a pefect choice. I still do. And, of course, Simon Pegg is wonderful as Scotty.

As far as Kirk? Like I mentioned before it was good to see Chris Pine not imitate William Shatner’s style. However, the character of Kirk is there. You just have to look past the fact that the actor is not portraying him like we are used to seeing him. Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura’s actors also play their roles very well. Just enough of the original actor’s style.

OK, so most of you will know that Leonard Nimoy is also in the movie as Spock. Spock Prime in the credits. So yes, this is a kind of alternate universe version of Star Trek. And thankfully so. This gives J.J. Abrams some creative leeway to let us see all the original characters in a new way. I won’t go into revealing plot lines and post spoilers, but suffice to say that there are more than a few tweaks to what we know of the Star Trek history. And I’m fine with that. I’m also not a Trekkie or Trekker either, so I’m not loaded down with all that purity baggage. However, even those Trekkies and Trekkers should be pleased with the outcome.

The writers also did a great job of putting in the requisite one-liners in the script. And the actors nailed them. And the audience laughed at them. However, what really annoyed me the most was the audience. I love going to midnight shows of movies. And while this wasn’t a midnight show last night (9:55), many in the audience had that midnight show quality. The annoying kind. It was as if they felt like they had to laugh or chuckle at any little thing that could be some kind of inside joke. You know the kind of people that have that little smug laugh about something that they only get just to look smart? The problem is, many times that inside joke didn’t exist.

I’m going to sound a little bit like the grumpy old man, but many of the people in the audience were a lot younger than I. Dare I say I could have been their father in many cases. And in light of that, I did watch the original series. Ad nauseam in syndication after school growing up. No, I’m not old enough to remember it on it’s original run – it’s first airing was exactly one year before I was born – but I did grow up watching it. Most of those in the audience probably grew up watching The Next Generation and saw some of the movies. So what they thought was some kind of call back or inside joke, wasn’t. Get over your smug selves, OK?

Enough of that rant. I’ll put my cane away. However I will address a couple criticisms I had heard prior to watching the movie. Too much humor and not enough morality.

First Humor. The movie had plenty of it and I felt it was well placed. This is where I’ll compare this movie to the other movies with the original cast. There was no more humor than any of the others. Luckily it wasn’t filled with humor like Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home. Do you remember that one? The one where they save the whale? Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Seriously. But it was a bit over the top with the attitude of “hey, we c
an do and say things in the movie format that we couldn’t do on the TV show.” “Double Dumb Ass” anyone? Some of my favorite quotes are from that movie. Anyway, the humor in this one is just fine. Much of it is in the characters using those stereotypical lines that we want to hear them say.

Morality. The original series was filled with morality lessons. And so were the series that followed, but the original had the most in my opinion. Remember it was the late 60s. Flower Power, Peace on Earth, Kumbaya, Civil Rights, etc. The crew alone of the USS Enterprise was a lesson in racial diversity. Groundbreaking back then. Today it’s not necessarily expected, but it’s accepted as being normal. Kirk making out with green aliens is interracial relationships. And then taken a step further with the first true interracial kiss on US television between Kirk and Uhura from the episode “Plato’s Children.” Almost every episode had some kind of moral lesson. This movie, not so much. But that’s OK. Most of the movies that were made didn’t have any kind of overt morality lesson either. The movie probably considered one of the favorites is the Wrath of Khan. It’s not void of morality, but it’s not an exercise in it either.

What about the action and effects? Stellar. Lots of explosions, great weapons fire, excellent CG, though the lens flairs were a bit distracting. There may be people critical of too much action. I saw a tweet about this being the Star Wars version of Star Trek. Eh, OK, if you want to go there. But I didn’t come away from this movie felling like I had watched Star Wars with Star Trek characters.

And lastly, the movie made me want to see more of them. Let’s face it. Star Trek is a property that Paramount has been wringing every last bit of money out of for a long time. Except for TNG, the other series just haven’t lived up to the legacy of the original. And Paramount is ready for a yet another generation to fall in love with the characters. They could easily make a few movies with the original characters, and then move on to the TNG characters for the next 10-15 years. Paramount has revitalized a property that has been languishing for over 10 years. Good job. Let’s hope this series Lives Long and Prospers.

Tags: Science Fiction