Turned on Star Trek the original 1979 movie. And then I remembered I was a Star Wars girl and turned it off.
— Lauren Smith (@lauren_smith_17) April 8, 2014
That being said, these new movies are the shiz. Do I think it's a LITTLE weird that JJ Abrams is doing both Star Wars AND Star Trek? Yes. It's kind of weird. And a little traitorous (the nerd-code thing). But he made Star Trek 4000 times cooler by turning it into Star Wars! Does that mean that next year when Star Wars Episode VII comes out it will be morphed into the Star Trek realm a little? Perhaps. We'll get there when we get there.
But for the meantime, I will enjoy these movies.
All I knew about the 'verse before I saw this a few years back was some stuff about Captain Kirk, the Enterprise, and Spock, of course. And, like, William Shatner. And stuff from Galaxy Quest. So take that knowledge, and throw it all through an awesome time travel loop and you got my experience with Star Trek.
This story starts on the day our beloved James Tiberius Kirk was born, the same day his hero father is martyred saving his all-star crew from some time traveling alien bastards in search of Ambassador Spock. Who is also just a little dude. Irrelevant. The bulk of the story takes place 25 years later and Kirk has grown up (played by Chris Pine), but still a younger, more brash, rebellious version than the Kirk most fans are used to. See this whole time-traveling thing works out great because we get to enjoy younger, more attractive versions of the usual Enterprise crew-members who essentially feed off their older selves. Kirk, Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and Scotty (Simon Pegg) make up that crew, and they go through their growing pains with each other. When Spock meets his future self (played by Leonard Nimoy) he is shocked to hear that in this alternate all-too-familiar universe of original Spock & Kirk, he and Captain Kirk were best friends. Ultimately, the young crew, combat those same time-traveling alien bastards that killed Papa Kirk.
Besides all the cool time travel stuff (which, frankly, I'm super into), what gets me with this film is the characters and their interaction aboard the maiden voyage of the Enterprise. It being an origin story, we learn very interesting details about Kirk and Spock. Jim T's father made history in his battle against the nefarious Nero (awesomely hard-to-recognizely played by Eric Bana) and left Kirk with that legacy's shadow to hide from. He's convinced by Commander Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to join Starfleet, but his rebellious hot rod attitude inevitably clashes with straight-nosed half-Vulcan/half-human Spock. Spock is thoughtfully played by Zachary Quinto. He has a troubling background and goes through some serious emotional turmoil when his planet is blown up in front of him - Alderaan style. Spock is in a constant battle between his natural Vulcan instinct to be un-emotional and to proceed business as usual with his human side fighting from deep within to explode. Quinto's performance delivers something special: he stays true to character yet delivers every line and every gesture with subdued emotion and the feeling that something hot is boiling underneath his calm exterior.
If you're going to do a reboot - especially a reboot of a series so massive and with so many dedicated followers - this is the way to do it. Abrams goes back to the beginning (who doesn't love origin stories?) he brings out familiar characters but gives them a new twist, and he delivers everything with top-notch special effects, a clever story, great action sequences, and a good script to boot. If I knew more about science, I'm sure I'd be able to hate along with the rest of you on the actual implications of black holes and whatever. If I knew more about Star Trek in general, I might be able to do some hating that I'm sure I'll be throwing around when the new Star Wars comes out. But even long-timers can't hate on that new and improved Enterprise. It's beautiful. When it comes down to it, if we're talking about spectacle, 2009's Star Trek has got it. 8/10
Besides all the cool time travel stuff (which, frankly, I'm super into), what gets me with this film is the characters and their interaction aboard the maiden voyage of the Enterprise. It being an origin story, we learn very interesting details about Kirk and Spock. Jim T's father made history in his battle against the nefarious Nero (awesomely hard-to-recognizely played by Eric Bana) and left Kirk with that legacy's shadow to hide from. He's convinced by Commander Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to join Starfleet, but his rebellious hot rod attitude inevitably clashes with straight-nosed half-Vulcan/half-human Spock. Spock is thoughtfully played by Zachary Quinto. He has a troubling background and goes through some serious emotional turmoil when his planet is blown up in front of him - Alderaan style. Spock is in a constant battle between his natural Vulcan instinct to be un-emotional and to proceed business as usual with his human side fighting from deep within to explode. Quinto's performance delivers something special: he stays true to character yet delivers every line and every gesture with subdued emotion and the feeling that something hot is boiling underneath his calm exterior.
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