I will be the first one to tell you that I would viciously argue the merits of Star Wars over Star Trek when I was a child. "The Millennium Falcon could fly circles around the Enterprise, never mind a Star Destroyer," I would argue with a friend of mine named Campbell, who was on the opposite side of the debate. I never really watched the original show that much even with its reruns but I had seen the movies, some of which I grew to appreciate as I got older. I especially enjoyed the last of the films starring the old crew, The Undiscovered Country. This was mostly because of the fact that it starred a Klingon who felt as comfortable with Shakespeare as his peers were with aggressively grunting at each other. I had watched the newer films too with Stewart and crew, and besides from the excellent First Contact, none of them were very impressive.
When I first heard whispers that they would reinvent the original characters I took little notice, but I began paying attention when I saw the first shots of the film's cast in costume. I was amazed to see not aging or pudgy veterans of television but a mostly unrecognizable crew of young, attractive people! This of course takes a page from the book of Battlestar Galactica, which I did not watch, but which I know had huge success by using the combination of a mostly hip cast and a gritty storyline. Trek isn't gritty, but it's definitely hip, and I think they hit a home run with this new film.
I recognized exactly five people among the cast. Zachary Quinto (Spock) is of course Sylar from Heroes, and its good to see him in a role where he's not murdering people for giggles. Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy) was in Lord of the Rings and the awesomely awful Doom movie, and he does a fantastic job here as a disgruntled, paranoid physician who is Kirk's first friend in the Federation. Finally, Eric Bana (Nero, the bad guy) was of course the Hulk in the first movie rendition and, more awesomely in my opinion, Hector of Troy in Troy. Leonard Nimoy (old Spock) of course needs no introduction. Finally, Simon Pegg (Scotty) was the creator and star of my favorite parody film of all time apart from Blazing Saddles, Sean of the Dead.
When I first heard whispers that they would reinvent the original characters I took little notice, but I began paying attention when I saw the first shots of the film's cast in costume. I was amazed to see not aging or pudgy veterans of television but a mostly unrecognizable crew of young, attractive people! This of course takes a page from the book of Battlestar Galactica, which I did not watch, but which I know had huge success by using the combination of a mostly hip cast and a gritty storyline. Trek isn't gritty, but it's definitely hip, and I think they hit a home run with this new film.
I recognized exactly five people among the cast. Zachary Quinto (Spock) is of course Sylar from Heroes, and its good to see him in a role where he's not murdering people for giggles. Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy) was in Lord of the Rings and the awesomely awful Doom movie, and he does a fantastic job here as a disgruntled, paranoid physician who is Kirk's first friend in the Federation. Finally, Eric Bana (Nero, the bad guy) was of course the Hulk in the first movie rendition and, more awesomely in my opinion, Hector of Troy in Troy. Leonard Nimoy (old Spock) of course needs no introduction. Finally, Simon Pegg (Scotty) was the creator and star of my favorite parody film of all time apart from Blazing Saddles, Sean of the Dead.
McCoy (left) = AWESOME MOVIE DOCTOR
Everyone else is relatively new to the scene. I should of course mention Chris Pine (Kirk) who plays a version of Kirk who is understandably unstable thanks to an alcoholic stepfather who raised him after his more heroic biological father died to save his family. His evolution from a pugilistic bar-crawler to inspiring leader which takes place over the course of the film is both well done and believable in the context of the story. John Cho (Sulu) is a strange choice because he's Korean and the character is Japanese, but I read that George Takei approved it since the character is supposed to represent all of Asia. Zoe Saldana (Uhura) is beautiful and I got used to the idea of her being with Spock even though it was awkward at first. Lastly I should mention Anton Yelchin (Chekov) who essentially plays a whiz kid who feels slightly out of place in such a major position on the ship.
The plot is fine but its relatively inconsequential to the movie, which is driven by the characters. Nero comes from the future and he's pissed at old Spock for (in his eyes anyway) allowing his home planet to be destroyed by a super nova. To get everyone back he uses the combination of a giant drill and a black hole creator to threaten Earth. You can probably guess how things go form there.
As I wrote earlier its all very character driven. Kirk and Spock both start out as jerks in their own, opposite ways, and of course they clash when it comes to making decisions about saving Earth. Kirk runs into old Spock before young Spock does, and you can see how the future friendship begins right there, with superb acting from Nimoy in the way that he conveys the mixed emotions of seeing an old, and long dead, comrade at the beginning of his life in the stars. Even better than that (and I am obviously biased in this) is the ship's physician, Dr. McCoy. He has the sarcastic outlook on life that any good sci-fi doctor has and there is a hilarious scene where he is constantly injecting things into Kirk's neck, treating one symptom while at the same time causing another, all while the ship is in a state of crisis. I get the feeling that this film will both be nostalgic to old fans and acquaint the kiddies to these characters, and it is likely to be followed by many sequels. With any luck, they can match the quality of this movie.
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