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Just when they had escape the clutches of Q…

With apologies to Tiger, Deanna, and Picard.

Coming in at #8 on my top 10 movies of 2009 is… Star Trek!

I was really excited when I first heard about a new Star Trek movie. I love me some Jean-Luc Picard, so any time he’s on screen I’ll watch… Then I found out they were doing a reboot of the original series, and I was both shocked and dismayed. Why? Well, despite the writers of Star Trek continually ruining the universe and lowering the bar show after show through several series, I will always fawn over the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, despite enjoying the original series, I never appreciated it on the same level. I was, after all, born many years after it originally aired so any nostalgia effect would be lost on me.

The New Kirk - Chris Pine

Despite my hesitations for an original series reboot I attended a midnight screening to do my part and contribute to this new-found Star Trek craze. Thankfully, I was very surprised by the movie and enjoyed it thoroughly. Not only was it faithful to the original series (a controversial point of view for a Star Trek fan… I know), but it was also an entertaining science fiction action-adventure romp through space.

I don’t have too much to say about this movie in terms of any sort of critical review. There are fine actors on display, there are great action sequences, and the story is fluid and interesting. The movie is constantly riding the lines between a summer blockbuster, an action movie, and a science fiction movie. I think that this combination of approaches is what has yielded such a successful reboot of the Star Trek franchise. It’s also worth mentioning that Karl Urban has the best performance of the movie. His Dr. McCoy is spot-on, perhaps even better than DeForest Kelley’s, if that were even possible.

Attack of the Lens Flares!

The downsides? Lens flares. As part of the combined revitalization in art direction and cinematography, the creators decided to use a lot of lens flares to try to distance the movie from its predecessors. Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of sparkling lights and flares are nothing but distracting. There were of course, like any Science Fiction movie, some plot holes that anyone could nitpick if they so chose. But that is not the point of a science fiction movie. To a certain extent, some suspension of disbelief must always be taken. Another issue I had with this movie has nothing to do with the movie itself… but rather William Shatner’s complaints about it. Just let it go man!

Somebody want to close the curtains?

A lot of Star Trek fans have taken offense with some of the decisions in the movie, such as destroying the original universe’s Romulus, creating a second universe, destroying Vulcan on the new universe, and using Spock as a transitional thread from one universe to the next. To be perfectly honest, I think all of these ideas were perfectly fine and in line with everything Star Trek. The second universe is a perfect way to reboot the franchise without altering the previous history of the original series. In addition, if Paramount chooses to (and I hope they do), they could revisit the Next Generation series of movies and further along the story there-in with the after-effects of a ruined Romulan empire. Yeah, I went there.

Bones is Back

I had a hard time putting this movie at #8 on my list. Since I’m such a big fan of all things Trek, I tend to have a knee-jerk reaction of placing Trek movies on a pedestal. Thankfully, in my continuing self-imposed education in film, I have learned to take a step back and see these movies in a more critical approach. If you’d like to read more about Star Trek (why wouldn’t you?) check out the Wikipedia and IMDB pages. I made a Star Trek wallpaper back when the first movie poster came out. Check it out.

I am really excited because Star Trek is about to come out, and apparently it is really good. This is a big deal for me, because the factor of how cool I am is about to double, even triple or quadruple. I am a huge Star Trek fan, and although I have never worn a costume or attended a Trek convention, I really know my stuff.

Ever since this new Star Trek poster came out I was really taken by it. It’s just obscure enough for a non-trekkie to be confused, meanwhile conveying the total awesomeness of the Enterprise. I myself am not a huge fan of the original series (I’m a Next Generation guy) but I’m hopeful for what this can do to revive the franchise. The original image was much smaller, so I had to do some extensions of the blur lines to get a nice big image.

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