SHMR #6: Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek (2009)
Directed by JJ Abrams
Staring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoe Saldana, Leonard Nemoy

This is the perfect summer movie: lots of action, explosions, and a fun, relatively easy to follow (though not simple) plot. I went to go see it with one of my friends who knows much more about the franchise than I did (this is actually my first introduction to Star Trek ever outside universal pop culture references... basically I knew there was a guy with funny ears named "Spock" and William Shatner). The movie proved to be enjoyable for both the fan and the newbie. Abrams did a good job at making the plot accessable to people who have never seen anything about Star Trek, while still staying true to the fan's expectations.

The movie has a lot of really amazing visual and special effects and for the most part, it looks very very new while still retaining the classic look (uniforms were updated and motercycles were added...) The one thing about the look of the movie that really bothered me was the clash between the Enterprise and Nero's ship. While the Enterprise looked as if it was built with all the highest standards that a summer blockbuster's budget could allow, Nero's ship looked at times like it had been pulled out of a bad Sci-Fi Channel show/ early 1990's Power Rangers. While I appreciate the attempt to show a difference between the cultures of humans and Romulans, but there seemed to be a severe lack of quality between the two ships that ended up looking like faulty production other than artistic interpretation.

The characters were, as far as I can tell (and from my fan friend's sighs of relief and smiles of delight), very very spot on. From the standpoint of a newbie, I really enjoyed just how bad-ass Kirk was and I really liked how the writers played with the fact that Spock was half human. He was emotionally detached, but found that there were two emotions he could not control: anger and love (which made him a very very attractive character). Scotty was fantastic and so was McCoy...each of these characters offered necessary comic relief (after a fight between Spock and Kirk, Scotty breaks the tension with his awesome scottish accent "I like being on this ship...it's exciting!").

But now, to the most important part of the movie:
Spock. Spcok was amazingly attractive. Not necessarily the best looking, but definately had that quailty that made him by far the sexiest and most attractive of the characters. Although, he is also very good looking...he defaults to logic when distressed, which creates something of a tortured soul aura (minor soul torture, though). Some fans might be upset with his involvement with Uhura (two scenes in particular...) but I think it is an interesting choice to show his human side and to play with the inner conflict between his Vulcan identity and his human identity. Overall, he was fantastic and one of my favortie parts of the movie. Plus, he is so attractive.

Overall Rating: A-