Movie review - Star Trek

Reactions to my saying that I was going to watch the Star Trek movie ranged from *"Errr...are you sure you want to tell me this?" to "You're gonna love it! You're gonna come back speaking Klingon!" Not having seen any of the other Star Trek things - but well aware of various aspects of Trekerie due to its presence in pop culture (thanks, Futurama!) - I decided to go into Star Trek with an open mind. It has been requested that I try not to spoil this so if details are a bit vague, there you go.

Like the Batman and Bond franchises that successfully rebooted their series, ST goes right back to the beginning to James Kirk's birth and through his time at Trekkie Academy with Spock, and their first big adventure together. I can't really say much else about the story given that stuff that happens right at the beginning indicates that it's completely deviated from what I assume is Trekkie canon but I didn't have as many problems with the story compared to the onliners complaining about it. :D

The acting is alright, I suppose. Chris Pine as Kirk is good although he reminded me of a more able Captain Branigan in a few scenes. That's not a bad thing. But it really really annoyed me to see Simon Pegg as Scotty! I LOVE Hot Fuzz and seeing Nicholas Angel speaking with a Scots accent was grating - why not just employ a Scottish actor?! Otherwise he was good with the comic timing. Eric Bana is fairly unrecognisable as the baddie Nero until he opens his mouth and you hear him speak. Hehehe.

ST is not a movie for character development - it is essentially a bit dumb action movie. Being a lover of mindless action, I was pleased in that respect. The movie kicks off with a big action battle sequence and a variety of chases, fist fights, big space shoot outs and forth. However, while the action is good and entertaining, there were a few points in the final battle when all those phasers or whatevers are shooting around that I did think to myself *Whoa! Epilepsy! Epilepsy!* and I'm not epileptic. Another member of the party actually got motion sickness from the editing of the action and had to leave and sit at the back. That's not a good thing but seeing as no one else got sick, maybe it will only affect a small number of population

The main thing that hampered my enjoyment was the fact that when significant people who must have been characters in the series popped up, unless they were special enough to make it into general pop culture, e.g. Scotty, I had no idea who they were. This was not helped by the other people in the audience and my own personality. Case in point, when the character Chekov turns up in his Russian accent, there were murmurs around me. And it drove me nuts that I didn't know who he was and they did! This also happened when various catchphrases were uttered or when people laughed at a joke I didn't get. It drove me nuts to not know!!!

Anyway, it was an enjoyably passable way to spend two hours. I didn't walk out full of complaints, but I wasn't as ecstatically pleased as my companion Suboo (who is a Trekkie) so it's in the lower half of a pass.
6/10