Star Trek - Mini Movie Review

After what has seemed like an eternity of waiting Star Trek has finally arrived in UK cinemas and little old Kryptonian Warrior went to see it this evening...

Now I'm gonna get my ass kicked by Dark Knight for having gone tonight when we'd planned to go see it together in the next few days, but DK my friend I just couldn't wait, sorry, I was literally bursting at the seams and ended up going to an early showing by myself.


Now I'm not going to give anything away if I can help it, I'm not doing a full review revealing every little detail like I did with 'The Knowing', I respect this movie far too much to not let you experience every second of its glorious being for yourself... And as you probably guessed by that statement I did like it... A LOT.

I would go as far as to say this was one of the most incredible cinematic experiences I've possibly had, and believe you me I've had a shed load in my 31 years. Yes, it's true I am a die-hard Trekker. Yes it's true I loved this movie before I even saw it, just because of what it was and how impressive the trailer was. And yes it's true that this unashamedly biased opinion, which was set in stone before I stepped foot in the cinema, is not objective, but to put it bluntly I don't care. You DO NOT have to be a Star Trek fan for this movie to blow you away and that's the God's honest truth. To be one only enhances the experience...


Lets go through this as best I can. First off the beginning to this movie is amazing. The cinematography, the direction and the visceral action hits you from the very first second and doesn't let up until the giant Trek symbol appears about 10 minutes later signalling the actual start to the main film. I actually got quite emotional too in this opening sequence... You'll see why. And then it all starts again and doesn't end until the end credits role.

The set pieces throughout the film are incredible and are frankly huge sprawling masterpieces that you could look at for hours in awe of the work that's gone into them. Being the movie fan that I am I appreciate special effects that look so real, you never once think that they're not. The bridge is blindingly bright and futuristic, the sounds are thankfully authentic Trek, and fit perfectly in this re-vamp, and the Enterprise herself has never looked so good... It's everything you could have wanted and more.

Add that to the superb, pitch-perfect acting by the whole cast (Eric Bana not included as the guy's usually more wooden than a certain Disney puppet with a cricket for a friend) with special mention to Anton Yelchin and Simon Pegg for their accents, Yelchin especially made me laugh with Chekov's inability to say V's, Karl Urban for his accurate and damned funny portrayal of DeForest Kelly's Bones and Chris Pine (in the very final scene at least) for pulling off an almost perfect Bill Shatner-Kirk with vocal tone, cocky swagger and expression included. The only characters that didn't clone their predecessors were Zoe Saldana's Uhura, John Cho's Sulu and surprisingly Zachary Quinto's Spock. Now that's not a bad thing. I know a few of the actors wanted to give their characters a little spin and not imitate the actors who came before them, and in a film that is all about re-writing history it still works and you still love their characters despite their distancing themselves that much.


The action in Star Trek is incredible and all very well filmed and choreographed. A few scenes may be a little unnecessary (such as the mining platform tussle etc) but it never feels over the top or corny and fits into the story neatly so as to keep you interested continuously. The action isn't the only thing that's done well. The humour level is turned up to warp 9 and is surprisingly frequent throughout. This again is not over done and although a little distracting to begin with (for those sitting there taking this film very seriously) it was all genuinely funny and well received by the audience, and me of course.

I don't have anything negative to say about it really other than the constant lighting flares that pop up everywhere as part of the effects are a tad annoying, the bad guys just aren't bad enough and the movie crams so much in to such a short space of time that non fans might get overwhelmed, but these are extremely minor points and don't detract from it being a hugely enjoyable popcorn flick. Oh and by the way JJ Abrams has used time travel and an alternate timeline effect (a specific McGuffin needed for this to work) to create a whole new beginning to the franchise, which is commendable as it works, even though it's a blatant means to an end to do more films that aren't in our canon Star Trek knowledge. It's cheeky but wholly accepted for re-boot like this to succeed.


There's not a lot else I can say that won't give away the plot, sub plot or anything else potentially ruining for your viewing so I'll leave it at that, but I urge you to take the time out to go see this movie as soon as you can. You will not regret it. I'm sure many will find faults in this film and find a lot of the things I've said that I find positive to actually be negatives, but again like I said at the start of this post 'I DON'T CARE' this filmed rocked me. When the classic music chimes up at the end and the voice over starts, I dare you not to get goosebumps. In fact I double frickin dare you... I actually walked out of the cinema with tears in my eyes, I enjoyed it that much. Such is the geekiness level of Kryptonian Warrior!

10/10
Literally where no man has been before...

Roll on Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen!