movie review by brandon: star trek

**** out of *****

As a kid, I was always a Star Wars guy.

I much preferred big, explosive space opera to Star Trek's quieter sci-fi drama. I have seen episodes of the show, and remember my mom calling me in from playing whenever the Khan and Tribble episodes were on. I also saw a lot of the 1970's animated version, as well as the first four movies in the series (and Turkish Star Trek! Where space is orange!). But it was more something that my dad watched.

Well, JJ Abrams is here to modern this bitch up a bit! We open with a really effective prologue, pitting the USS Kelvin (for all you Lost fans out there) against a mysterious Romulan ship with unstoppable weapons and the evil Captain Nero (Eric Bana). As acting captain, George Kirk manages to save his crew (including his wife and unborn son) before perishing with his ship. And I have to say, it's a pretty emotional scene for a summer blockbuster.

We then follow a few of Kirk and Spock's unnecessary childhood adventures before they both join Starfleet, and then skip ahead to Kirk beating the Kobayashi Maru test (apparently this means something to Star Trek people). THEN we get back to the plot, as an attack on Vulcan collects all our favorite Trekkers onto the Enterprise under the command of Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood). It seems Nero has found a way to turn planets into black holes (due to a red circle of goo, for all you Alias fans out there), and he's got both Vulcan and Earth in his sights.

Now, I'm torn on my rating. On one hand, there's really nothing I disliked about the movie. Oh sure, there's a lot of cheese...can't Kirk just walk into a cave instead of being chased by a big, pointless CGI monster? Isn't there any other way to explain the plot than to have a character show up at the mid-point and just explain it to the everyone? But it's all in good fun. I just didn't walk out wanting to boldly go where no man has gone before. This seems odd, as everyone else seems to be filling their pants about this movie. But to me it felt like a prologue…or perhaps my expectations were just too high.

Besides the JJ Abrams references to his most famous TV shows (the time travel/destiny plotline also owes a good deal to Lost), there are some good references to the original Star Trek (and probably lots more I missed). And he sets up a clever, although mildly infuriating, way to subvert all that dense Trek canon and start out anew. I particularly liked that even Abrams' Enterprise has one area full of pointlessly spinning blades.

And I suppose I got pretty wrapped up since I didn't even notice the just over two-hour running time, and actually felt like it could've gone longer (maybe I'm just used to the interminable Star Trek: The Motion Picture). So I've decided to err on the side of positivity. This is a fun movie, and probably the best way to spend your hard-earned cash in the multiplex..at least until Transformers: Revenge of the Incoherent Action Scene hits theaters.

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