Monday 15 August 2011

Star Trek


This week I ‘ave been mostly watching Star Trek (and not the series from the 60’s)
Although the original series looks rather dated these days most people will admit it was pretty revolutionary at the time and has spawned several spin off series and movies each with varying levels of success.
It seemed for a long time that the movie franchise had taken the storylines as far as they could go and I’m pretty sure most people would have been happy with it ending at Star Trek: Nemesis with was to me one of the best films in the series after First Contact.
I’m not sure where the idea came from to re-invent the saga and take it back to the very beginning with an all new young cast and the hit & miss director J.J. Abrams, but I’m really glad they have.
And seemingly contradictory to how movie makers usually go about it, someone actually had the common sense to write a storyline that actually works and doesn’t take anything away for the previous films and sets things up nicely for future sequels to develop along their own lines. They did achieve this with a little dose of time travel, but the way they embraced it and showed all the knock on effects it does allow plenty of scope for development going forward.
Basic storyline starts in the future with Romulus being destroyed by a Super Nova that good old Spock was not able to prevent. One very angry Eric Bana gets drawn back through time and waits patiently for old man Spock to be pulled through the Blackhole after him so he can return the favour and destroy Vulcan. As a result of the time travel Kirk life takes a major turn becoming a bum rather than a Star Fleet officer. Many twists and turns get him back where he needs to be by the end of the movie.
Great action scenes all the way through with some excellent castings including former “Kyle Reese” Anton Yelchin as Chekov.
Likes number one has to be the pub scene starting with a very drunk Kirk trying to chat up the very sexy Uhura (Zoe Saldana), with a fight pack middle and ending with the line “you can whistle really loud!”
Like number two, and I’m jumping forward in the story, but Simon Pegg as Scotty is pure genius......”I love this ship”
Like number three, is the fact that you can already embrace the future with a quick trip to a public toilet, knowing full well that the Dyson Airblade even has a role on a Star Ship!
Like number four, the symptoms Kirk experiences while sneaking aboard the Enterprise ended with a great Cartman impression.
Like number four, is the classic Star Trek away mission selection process. Two of the main cast and a random dude.....hmmmm wondered what might happen to him :-)
Like number five, “Get out of the Chair”
I could go on talking about the quality action scenes and cinema photography throughout the movie, but should mention a few issues that I have.
Dislike number one, is the Drill! Random Pub talking point: How fucking long and strong would that drill have to be to reach from an orbiting space ship into the atmosphere of the planet? And how long would it take to reel back in when you’ve finished?
Dislike number two, has to be the ridiculous amount of Red Matter there is. If you only need to ignite a single drop of the stuff to create a blackhole, why would you feel the need to fly around with a ball the size of a giant angry bird toy I saw in Hamleys the other day!!
Dislike number three, sky dive from space......really!!! Not that I work for NASA, but I’m pretty sure that even the slightest imperfection in the hull of a space shuttle will result in a pretty large explosion, what exactly are those space suits made out of for you to be able to dive head first into the atmosphere?
Dislike number four, the Giant Red monster on the ice planet. The scene starts well with a Polar bear type creature chasing after Kirk, but then a slightly out of place looking creature crashes through the ice but decides the tiny human would be a more suitable meal then the Bear it’s already got in its chops. And how on earth did evolution think that stilts for legs would be good on sheet ice!

In general this is a very good action movie, with a well thought out cast and script. There is a nice element of humour with some good character twists from the original series.
I’m not a full Trekkie, but I have to say I have always enjoyed the movies, but feel you could happily enjoy this movie regardless of whether you have ever seen Start Trek before or not.
It’s another keeper for your Blu-Ray, DVD or iTunes stock!

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