Well, looks like the cinema here got the movie a lot earlier than I expected so I skipped down the hill at full impulse to go see it.
Where to start?
I guess it would only be fair to go back to my previous trepidations of this movie that I have documented loudly and often enough.
I didn't want to go back and recast the original crew and I didn't want an altered time line. I didn't want to see a mindless action movie and I didn't exactly fall in love with the idea of Chris Pine as Kirk either. The latter being a real make or break position of whether I was going to be able to enjoy this movie or not. Add to that my distaste for the design of The Enterprise both outside and in and it would be fair to say that I was prickly over whether this was going to work or not.
I never considered myself an "elitist" Trek fan but I guess the build-up to this movie did make me more protective of my franchise than I previously thought I would be.
As time went on I started to soften my approach to the movie and I started finding positives in it and while still wary I allowed myself to be swept up a bit in the enjoyment of waiting for it to finally be released and told myself that there was no point in deriding a film I had yet to see. I suppose that position really came around after watching the trailer with "old" Spock at the end. Seeing Nimoy for those few seconds really made me truly excited for this project for the first time.
Anyway -- Enough about my position before the movie. I've seen it now and while it will take a few days to really ponder the film (and probably watch it again with a more critical eye) I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely.
Is it perfect? No, not even close. But it didn't really have to be. It had to deliver where it mattered and that was in being not just a good movie but a great one. I would say that it succeeded in that just about.
It starts at breakneck pace and at not one single point does is catch its breath. This is both a plus and a minus. I would have enjoyed for the pace to be a slowed down in some places like the Academy scenes and Spock on Vulcan to name but a few. The characters - which I will get in to in a minute - were crying out for a few more in depth scenes without the plot being careened through at warp speed.
But the flip side of that is a really snappy movie that even though clocks in at over the 2 hour mark feels a lot faster than that. And it's exciting. There is tension and real purpose to whats going on and it drags you in and spits you out at the end wanting even more. You barely have time to blink.
A trade off for some more character stuff but one that was probably wise because this movie is n00b friendly for lack of a better term. Anyone with a taste for action and adventure is going to leave the cinema satisfied that their ticket was money well spent whether they hate every piece of Star Trek they have ever watched before or not. Well almost. Reviews and comments from non-fans seem to support that position as well. It's not an easy task to make such a complex entity as Star Trek palatable for the masses. Though with that said I don't think we needed Nokia references complete with ring tone. Fucking product placement in my Trek?
hpneutral:As fans we all know what quality and possibility exists in Star Trek and I think this movies single greatest achievement is presenting that to an audience that cannot relate or is ever going to be inclined to take on the rather mammoth task of watching Trek back-to-front in an extremely exciting and entertaining package while doing a pretty good job of re imagining the icons and heroes of every Star Trek fan and making them available to be enjoyed by new audiences without needing to tackle a 40 year-old TV Show. But at the same time letting the hardcore Trek base of which I count myself enjoy this on a slightly more advanced level with plenty of subtle nods to fans of the series and also giving us perhaps a bit of a platform to tell those that enjoyed the movie but would never have considered themselves Trek fans that now they have some idea of why we have loved Star Trek for so many years. Because yes it's different but this is still Star Trek through and through.
Now, the plot of the movie does have more than a few rough edges. I'm trying to keep this review spoiler free so I won't give away any major plot points but there was some really irrational stuff in there.
Some very light spoilers next:
Kid Kirk was as bad as I expected him to be. Totally pointless to even have him in the movie and the Nokia phone and Beastie Boys track was just insulting, frankly.
Ejecting Kirk from the bloody ship? Very lazy writing to conveniently get him to the next plot point. They do have a brig you know.
Nero's actual reasons for hating Spock are beyond stupid. Spock was trying to save Romulus and simply got beaten to the punch by an EXPLODING STAR. Hardly his fault.
This dramatically weakens Nero as a character.
Only 10,000 Vulcans off world? What?
And the shining champion stupid moment of this movie that we all knew was coming: Kirks instant promotion to Captain at the end. Totally jarring and shatters any state of disbelief. I was praying they would handle it better. Just throw up a "few years later" on the screen if you want to be super lazy but promoted to Captain from cadet to the Federation flagship immediately after the crisis? Hello?
Ejecting Kirk from the bloody ship? Very lazy writing to conveniently get him to the next plot point. They do have a brig you know.
Nero's actual reasons for hating Spock are beyond stupid. Spock was trying to save Romulus and simply got beaten to the punch by an EXPLODING STAR. Hardly his fault.
This dramatically weakens Nero as a character.
Only 10,000 Vulcans off world? What?
And the shining champion stupid moment of this movie that we all knew was coming: Kirks instant promotion to Captain at the end. Totally jarring and shatters any state of disbelief. I was praying they would handle it better. Just throw up a "few years later" on the screen if you want to be super lazy but promoted to Captain from cadet to the Federation flagship immediately after the crisis? Hello?
On to the characters..
Chris Pine has converted me. I enjoyed his performance greatly. I wouldn't go so far as to say that his performance or look screamed "That's Captain Kirk!" to me but his swagger and Kirk like confidence did shine through and thankfully was not teen angsty/brooding like I was worried it might be and overall it was easy to enjoy and accept him in the role without comparing everything he did to Shatners Kirk.
Zachary Quinto was good though I did, surprisingly enough, have more trouble relating his performance to the character we know as Spock than I did with Pine as Kirk. I don't know what it is exactly. Maybe it's down to the circumstance of the movies plot but I felt that it wasn't quite right. Maybe this is where the movie suffered a bit with its breakneck pace. There were parts that needed more character work and for the foot to be taken off the accelerator so the audience and the characters on screen had a chance to slow down and take it all in a bit more.
I was a bit confused by the thing going on with Spock and Uhura as well. This bit of romance seemed shoehorned in and it didn't fit for me at all. It seemed to come out of nowhere as well which can again be chalked up to the pace of the film
Urban was McCoy. I have no higher praise. It was great and I had a smile on my face whenever he spoke. Fantastic.
Simon Pegg didn't really remind of Scotty that much but his performance was fun and by the time he was introduced I was enjoying myself way too much to really care.
Zoe Salanda was hot, eh?
Yelchin, again, didn't really remind me of Chekov despite lots of V's replaced for W's but it was a good performance. I suppose I didn't expect to be that easy going with re imaginings of characters as I was but outside of Kirk, Spock and McCoy I think there is going to be more acceptance and leeway for having more of a twist on the characters. It was clear that they tried to keep the heart of the characters instead of going for straight imitations and for the most part it worked well.
Sulu had a bit more to do than Chekov and the performance was solid enough. Not much to say though I did fancy a White Castle burger after the movie. (I'm British and I've never been to White Castle but whatever)
Eric Bana had real presence as Nero but I think Khan's mantle as the best Trek movie bad guy is safe for now. We never really get the chance to learn who Nero is as a character. Sure, we get a brief bit of back story on him but that's our lot. I was waiting for a Rura Penthe scene that never came and would probably chalk the under utilization of Nero as one of my biggest critiques of the movie. Well, at least we know there is more than a few scenes cut from the film that I am willing to bet the bank will be restored for the DVD release. Still, this is a more than a bit of a detraction.
Nimoy was great as always. You didn't expect him to suck though did you? He really was needed in this movie and while he works as the perfect bridge from new to old and certainly lends vast credibility to such an ambitious project his role is not just an excuse to fill those two criteria. Nimoy rocks. End of.
What else? The CGi looks bloody brilliant and even that horrible Enterprise design can't help but look pretty in some of those scenes. I won't go too deep in to the technical merits of the movie because this review is getting longer and longer already and all you really need to know from me is that this is a very well put together movie.
Look, I was a naysayer. I don't mind admitting it. And some of my critiques before the movie are still present - though I almost ashamedly admit that I couldn't help smirk at Kirk's bloated hands - but what I wasn't expecting was things that seemed incredibly important to me before hand barely registered during the movie because I was too busy enjoying myself.
Yes, the movie has more than its fair share of superfluous action scenes and the plot is a more than a bit on the light side. The bridge still looks like an Apple store and it is a bit shallow on character depth and it does zip along too quickly pretty much the entire time and I'll never like those stupid nacelles...... but it's fun. It delivers in entertainment and excitement without stomping all over everything that came before it just for the sake of it. It shakes the hell out of the franchise but it certainly doesn't break it.
You know a sequel is coming. And I, for one, can't wait and have never been so pleased to be proved wrong. Even if not completely wrong
8.5 Vulcan salutes out of 10.
Best line in the movie:
"Hi Christopher, I'm Nero."
