Star Trek Review
May 6, 2009 by Vic HoltremanWill you like the new Star Trek movie even if you’re not a geek?
Short version: While hard core Trekkies may have some problems with it, this long time classic Star Trek fan found this reboot fun, fresh & exciting.
Screen Rant reviews Star Trek
Where to start? (This is going to be a long one, folks. If you want to skip the preamble and get right to the review itself click here.)
Some people are Star Wars fanatics, others go nuts over Transformers or X-Men. While I’m a huge Iron Man fan, Star Trek is my true love going back well over 30 years. My favorite of all the shows? The Original Series (aka TOS). You may look at it now and think it looks cheesy (however I highly recommend you check out the digitally remastered version with brand new visual effects on DVD or Blu-ray), but remember the original Star Trek is over 40 years old.
At the time the other big Sci-Fi TV show was the cheese-fest called Lost in Space – so keep that in mind as a comparison. 
I have Star Trek prop replicas on my bookshelves (some pretty damned nice ones) along with a copy of the original Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph and a set of blueprints of the original U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (which shows the location of a bowling alley on the ship!). I’ve memorized every episode of the original series – I can tell you which one each one is within seconds of any of them starting. And I’ve seen every movie.
Yes, I’m into Trek “canon” – tracking all the little details that tie the whole Star Trek universe together, however I’m also aware (though some fans seem to be in denial about this) that over the course of hundreds of episodes across five different series, Star Trek itself has violated its own canon many times.
Why am I telling you all this? So you have some context for my review of J.J. Abrams’, Roberto Orci’s and Alex Kurtzman’s reboot of the Star Trek universe. However this is not a review just for “Trekkies,” and that’s appropriate because neither is this film just for that group of die hard fans (among which I include myself).
Also, I did read the four part prequel comic that tells the story which leads to the events that take place in the film. If you have a chance I recommend you find it and pick it up at your local comic book store as it really fleshes out the “villain” in the film, Nero.
Some fans may disagree, but this franchise was in desperate need of a reboot, re-imagination, fresh “take” or whatever you’d like to call it. Star Trek, as a brand, was whithering on the vine and was in danger of being put on the shelf for who knows how long – until Paramount might decide enough time had gone by to give it another go. This was due to a number of factors, among which included the subsequent series being taken in directions by Rick Berman (and to some exent, Brannon Braga) that the fans did not agree with. Essentially it was a case of “the fans don’t know what’s good for them – we’ll tell them what they want.”
From this we gained the ignoble death of Captain Kirk in a transition movie with a stupidly weak plot device, Star Trek: Voyager, the Lost in Space of Trek, progressively crappier movies and finally Enterprise: At least an attempt at something fresh in Trek, which unfortunately went off in some half-assed direction – and Manny Coto’s efforts to bring the show back to what it should have been in season 4 were too little, too late.
So… when it was announced that the new film would go back to before the original series crew had met I was both excited at the prospect and terrified of how it might turn out. I mean we’re talking about recasting iconic roles. Bill Shatner? Leonard Nimoy? DeForest Kelly and James Doohan?
Sacrilege!
But I tried to be cautiously optimistic over the course of very early news, pre-production and through the production. I listed this film as my most anticipated of the year…
And I was NOT disappointed.
So finally – the review…
Click here to continue reading our Star Trek review…
Our Rating:
4 out of 5
Around the web:
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Steve, did you mean the deleted Nero vs Klingons scene? Rob Keyes posted it up last week: I’m surprised no-one here’s mentioned it. A much-needed snippet featuring Nero getting “up close & personal” with his captors. Not great, but needed to be left in IMO. His back story certainly couldn’t have hurt the movie overall, and needn’t have disrupted its flow too much.
I saw Jon Ronson’s Crazy Rulers Of The World documentary a few years back, Johnny, of which The Men Who Stare At Goats was just one part. Definitely not the comedy they seem to have made the film into…
@Kahless,
tlhIngan jIH loS vaD lIj mu’mey
Damn fricatives! Ruin anyone’s throat.
I’m a doctor, not a linguist.
~doc
@ 790:
Hey, bud, how are ya?
Kahless here just made the 100,000th comment on Screen Rant, according to Vic! Isn’t that great?
Anyway, we’re just playing an ST quote game, one of us throws out a quote from one of the series or movies, and someone guesses it, and then it’s that person’s turn to leave a quote.
Good to see ya again, 790!
~Johnny
@ Steve:
I give up, Doc, what’s a ‘fricative’?
I read somewhere once, in my Klingon/Earth English dictionary, that Tlh’Ingani (the language of Klingons. also referred to inappropriately as ‘Kilngonaase’) was in fact based on, of all things, Hebrew (can you believe it?); I guess that would be the Sabra dialect, lol!
Anyway, I think you are referring to the tendency, while speaking Hebrew (or Klingon), to hock up a ball of phlegm…
Since you are a doctor – and a linguist – you should shine on this one! Hahahahaha!
Since you’d never put Klingonaase on a kosher sandwich, you talk about a mixed metaphor, hahahaha!
Not in any self-respecting deli, not on a bet!
~Johnny
@ Steve
“the DVD is only a couple of weeks away”
Are you sure? The DVD is already out in Australia… came out last Thursday.
~Ingenue
@Ingénue:
That’s because they favor all you people down under due to all the Kiwis in the movie
Release date here is 11.20 according to the online sites.
@Vic
Oh my goodness; I won something else?!
He didn’t say you won anything, petaQ!!
Oh, yeah, he didn’t. Well, Vic, Star Trek is coming out soon.
@Johnny
Bud, you have no idea. He keeps going on and on about some place called Quinlat. And Kahless, you need to work on that opera.
And you need to work on being less of a weakling troll, petaQ!!
@790
You have been assimilated. Resistance is futile.
@Doc
Your Klingonese needs work, petaQ!!
Well, Kahless, he’s a doctor, not a….
HE’S A PETAQ!!!!!
Yeah, whatever.
@Ingenue
You mean the one you’re sending me, right? Right?!
“We might as well turn in our uniforms and back our bags” TNG
@Kahless,
I don’t speak Klingon… I use a universal translator. You really need to get in tune with Federation technology. Next you’ll be accusing me of actually suturing my patients with catgut and a needle! Oh, and I was reading JXMA and they had an article on Kidney liver disorders. You’ll probably want to get your Tacrin dose increased as you appear to be less lucid.
I’m off to watch the Vulcans count electrons or something.
~Doc
So this is where your hiding Johnny-O,
Kahless,,,,
The Borg have been defeated in my timeline,,, haa!!
@ Steve
Oh okay, yay to be in Aus then XD
@ Kahless
But come the holidays I shall purchase it (:
Haha, I actually haven’t bought it yet, I’m too busy with school to do such luxurious activities as shopping
~Ingenue
@ All:
Hahahahaha, good to see you all in such good humor!
My laptop caught the cyber-version of N1H1 and would not engage the internet for two days, finaly figured out (with the help of my local Geek Squad) the value of the F-11 button, I had to run a ‘system restore’ on it, took it back five days (Halloweeeeeen, BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!) and that seemed to fix it.
Well, just checking in – and Kahless, was that Wesley’s friend (played by the same guy who would later play Tom Paris on Voyager), to Wesley in the episode The First Duty? I think it was, that makes sense but I am just guessing…
Best I can do…It’s GOOD to be back!
Keep working on that Klingon opera, now, Kahless!
Luv to y’all,
~Johnny
PS: @ 790 – yeah, I spend a lot of time on SodaHead, same moniker, Johnny-O…I’ve already developed quite a reputation on there, lol!
@Johnny
Right episode, wrong person.
@ Kahless:
So I’d have to say, it was either the other guy or it was the girl; I don’t think it was Wesley who said it, but I can’t be sure!
Best I can do, pal!
~Johnny
@Johnny
Ok, I guess I’ll give it to you. The person who said it was cadet Seto (a Bajoran) to Wesley about revealing they were attempting the Covort Starburst maneuver. You’re up.
@ Kahless:
Thaks, John, I felt I got pretty close; that was one of my favorites of all of TNG.
Oh, let me see, I guess another TNG quote:
“…and now – and now a man will shut it off!”
~Johnny
That’s an easy one, Johnny: Riker about turning off Data in “Measure of a Man”. Wonderful episode. “Pinochio’s strings have been cut” I also liked the way everyone looked when Data revealed he had a sexual relationship with Tasha. Priceless!
See if anyone remembers what show this quote is from:
“Their torpedos are passing through our shields because they’re in a state of quantum flux”
Its in one of these shows. TNG, DS9 or Voyager.
@790
That sounds like Voyager, fighting the ship that was trying to change it’s planet’s history.
Yes close enough Kahless,,,
Did the technobabble give it away?
I just love the term, quantum flux!
@ 790:
Yeah, it’s why I love ST, hahahaha! I can’t understand why some people object to it, I was gonna guess the Voyager episode Year of Hell, but Kahless got it first, good for him! Gotta love the technobabble!
@ Kahless:
You nailed it, my turlte-headed friend! Yeah, I got a kick on everybody’s faces when Data said that, too, “We were intimate.”
Some people looked l8ke they were about to swallow their tongues, hahahahahaha!
Anyway, your go again! Man, I thought I had a reasonably hard one, but man, you blew it right outta the hangar! Impressive.
~Johnny
@790
Yep. Like Johnny said, ya’ gotta love that technobabble.
@johnny
Of course I’m impressive! I am Klingon!!!
Her kahless, have a tribble.
Ok, we can’t leave Doc out. Here’s one from TOS:
“Captain, look at my legs”
Rand to Kirk in Miri
Drat! I thought I had you that time, Doc. How long did it take you to figure that one out?
Admittedly, I don’t remember Miri very well compared to other episodes, but that line was rather provocative for the time. There are a few memorable lines from every episodes, and that one just happens to be one of the few I remember from Miri.
Here you are:
“Television was the colloquial term”
~Doc
@Doc
I think that quote was Spock in “Bread and Circuses”, about televising gladiator games? Or was it Spock in “Tomorrow is Yesterday”? I’ll go with my first choice.
A little advanced notice for you guys: There will be a giveaway on the site starting Tuesday for the coffee table book “Star Trek: The Art of the Film.”
Vic
Go with your first guess, Kahless. And toss up another quote.
~Doc
@Vic
That’s nice that you would warn them right before you send the book to me.
@Doc
Ok, another TOS:
“I grow weary of the chase”
I think that you need to intersperse hissing with that quote if I’m right. The Gorn captain (unnamed) to Kirk via Universal Translator in Arena
~Doc