Star Trek Movie Review

Star Trek – What a movie!

I took the plunge and went to the theater the other day to see Star Trek. I will admit I went into the theater skeptical, at best, about enjoying it. I wasn’t sure I was going to actually like it though I very much wanted to. I’ll admit, I absolutely love the director, J.J. Abrams. The man is a great storyteller as well as a wonderful director. So going in I knew it had a wonderful chance to succeed as a great story and superb bit of cinema. I wasn’t disappointed.

Star Trek ended up being a non-stop adrenaline rush. The story was moved forward in an expedited manner, leaving you breathless and on the edge of your seat, without leaving you confused and wondering what exactly was going on. It was comprehensible and did the original franchise proud by emulating what was best about the original series and eliminating anything that wasn’t relative to today’s audiences. I highly recommend the film, though it did have its share of gaffe’s and missteps. My assessment is as follows:

· Director – A
J.J. Abrams manages to squeeze the maximum amount of excitement out of this movie without resorting to terrible cliché’s
· Writers – B-
Though the character development was wonderful given the short amount of time for it; the story used some elderly science fiction plot devices that are a little stale and unimaginative.
· Acting – A -
The actors all did a great job developing the characters in their own way. Some parts felt a bit forced to me, mainly where they were attempting to pay homage to the original series.
· Special Affects – A+
At times you forget you aren’t watching real film but CGI sequences. This film cost $150,000,000 to make and you see all that and more on screen.

Overall, Star Trek was an exhilarating action/adventure that leaves you wanting more. While maintaining the strengths of the original series it breaks out of the stale Star Trek mold and manages to have broad appeal in the process. I believe this is destined to be one of the milestone movies of the 2009 summer blockbuster season.