Movie Review: Star Trek

22 May 2009 394 views No Comment

‘Highly anticipated, mostly dreaded.’

That pretty much sums up how I felt about the movie since it was announced. I am not a Trekkie, but I love Star Trek since it was my first contact with the genre of science fiction. The original Trek and the re-imagination with Scott Bakula as Captain Archer are my favorite Treks.

And then I was seeing the first screen shots from the new picture, with all those kids that vaguely resembled the original crew. My first impression was: “Oh my Kosh, it’s kindergarden in space!” I fully expected an action packed, sex-appeal focused, story-lacking flick that was intended to milk the franchise without honoring it.

I could not have been more wrong. This realization first materialized when I and 2,200 other science fiction fans were granted an exclusive 28 minute sneak preview of the movie at FedCon 18, one full week before it would officially open in German movie theaters. Leaving aside the awesomeness of watching a Star Trek movie with that many other Trek fans, the sneak peek was full of humor, the characters were instantly recognizable as the ones we had come to love, and the action scenes left us breathless, but cheering wildly.

After having watched the entire movie on its opening day, I was dazed, amazed, fascinated and wanted to watch it again right away. The new Star Trek movie simply rocks and is in my opinion the best that was ever made (my favorite until then was “The Voyage Home”). Period.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

The movie goes back to the very beginnings – literally. It opens at the time of Jim Kirk’s birth, shows us his and Spock’s youth (briefly) and how the crew of the original show (Uhura, Zulu, Checkov, Spock, Scotty and Bones) comes together and forms the bonds that will keep them together for many decades.

The casting of the characters is wonderful. All actors are perfect for the roles they play; Karl Urban as McCoy and Simon Pegg as Scotty do a particularly good job. Most amazing of all though is Zachary Quinto in his role as Spock. Mindblowing performance (no pun intended).

While even the most fanatic Trekkie will find some story holes here and there, I like to point out that the Star Trek universe has never been about correct physics (please visit Babylon 5 for that) or air-tight plots. The Trek universe is more philosophical and tries to imagine a better future, where mankind (and aliens) have transcended many of their less nice behavioral traits and come together to form a better world. This universe is supposed to give hope, to make us look more positive into the future.

Another warning: really bad spoilers ahead, don’t read if you still want to be surprised by the movie!

To that extend it was surprising to me how dark the movie was at times. The destruction of the ‘Kelvin’ at the very beginning, the annihilation of ‘Vulkan’ itself and the death of Amanda Grayson were landmarks in a story that turned the universe known to us upside down. Maybe because I did not expect such dramatic turns in the story, they caught me completely by surprise and left me emotionally reeling.

But overall, despite these events, the movie is also hilariously funny. It might be the most funny Trek picture to date. The verbal exchanges are sometimes so fast and so witty that they leave the viewer gasping for breath because there’s no time to recover from the first laugh attack.

There was also yet another aspect that caught me off-guard. I will only say: THE elevator scene! Oh. My. Kosh. I so did not see that coming. But I loved it. I hope we’ll get more of that.

The most fascinating aspect of the movie though is that they change the time line, thereby opening up a whole lot of possibilities to play with. The whole Trek universe can now be written anew and I desperately hope we will get a TV show with these same actors.

My rating: Full stars out of whatever is available. Great, great flick that surpassed expectations and really is worth watching again. Can’t wait for whatever JJ Abrams will throw at us next.