Star Trek Reboot: A Second Look

This might be a little unorthodox, considering the Star Trek reboot isn’t that old, but you know what? Who cares? Sit down and read. So, in a move that could have been either the greatest move known to man, or the biggest flop known to man, a director by the name of JJ Abrams (you know, LOST, Alias, etc) was tapped to bring fresh life to the franchise known as Star Trek.

I remember first hearing about this, and being slightly less than enthused.  A prequel?  Well, ok, but we just had that with Enterprise.  And we all know how that worked out.

But as time went on and more and more details of the movie came to light, the more (cautiously) excited I became. I saw the first teaser,  you know, the one that showed shots of the Enterprise being built, the one with the original December 2008 release date? At that point, I started to feel ok with it. Then the first full trailer came out. I was hooked.

I’ve always been a fan of the darker side of Star Trek. I always had a problem with the shiny happy, TOS and TNG, and to a point DS9, but once the Dominion War started, I loved every moment of it. As time went on and the trailers got more awesome for lack of a better word, my expectations went sky high.

From the first shot Abrams had my undivided attention. I loved the way the film was shot, the way space was space. Up was not up, and down was not down.  When an unfortunate crewman was sucked into the vacuum of space, sound stopped. The lens flares got to be a bit much, but it’s a small thing.

So, we see the birth of Kirk as Kirk’s dad pilots the Kelvin into Shinzon’s ship, then we fast forward a couple of years and see young Kirk driving a 60’s muscle car and listening to…Beastie Boys. To me that was probably the most jarring bit of the film. It just didn’t fit. So Kirk’s a rebel, a do it his own way type of person.

We meet young Spock on Vulcan. He’s is busy getting teased by his fellow classmates for being an emotional mongrel. A very logical choice of course. Smacks a bit of emotion, teasing a fellow student. But they are students, so we let it pass. Eventually we see two life changing moments for our two stalwart heroes. Pike recruits Kirk to Starfleet. Spock gives an emotionless middle finger to the Vulcan Science Academy, and goes to join Starfleet.

So the stage is set.  I’m not going to go into too much greater detail, as I don’t want to spoil anything. Kirk and Spock have finally assembled the crew that we know and love so much.  In the end, the good guys win and the bad guys lose.  And I loved every moment of it.

A few gentle criticisms…
Lens flares – a bit much, but not that big of a deal as I managed to ignore the majority of them

Size – As bad ass as the newest design of the Enterprise looked, there were some size and scale issues.  Shuttle bay to bridge in only a few bars of the score?  I think not.

Layout – Where was Uhura working with those giant steam pipe things?  Kind of a random place for a comms officer.  Medical bay and bridge seemed really close, too.

Fan boy praise…

Visuals – loved them all.  The movie was shot on an epic scale and that only helped the power of the film.

Music – Bloody hell.  Some of the best film score I’ve ever heard.

So, if you like Star Trek, see this movie.  If you don’t like Star Trek, see this movie.  This is more than a Star Trek movie, its a good sci-fi movie.