Star Trek Review

Spoilers? Maybe. I'm going to try to avoid any substantive plot points in this post, but no promises I won't write something that you'd rather wait to find out on your own. You've been warned.

[Edited: Per Aaron's notes, I've misspelled Uhura as Ahora. Sorry]

I just got back from seeing Star Trek. I'll start by saying I thought the casting was great, and the visuals were fantastic. I thought they really did a great job expressing the frantic pace of the battles while still allowing the viewer to see what was happening. In some movies there's so much happening on the screen that it all kind of goes by without letting the viewer (me) really see all that's happening. Glad to say that wasn't the case here.

What surprised me most was the level of humor in this film. I really thought they were going to go the super serious route, and make everyone stuffy and serious. I was kind of expecting a slightly improve Startship Troopers. I know, how low is that expectation? I was pleasantly surprised when the writing turned out to be, with a few exceptions, quite fun. While the characters were almost charicatures of the originals, I guess that can't really be avoided. They were playing to well established types, so they had to work in the cliche lines we all expect. I thought they were a little heavy with the "I'm a doctor, dammit!" lines, but other than that, they did a great job. Not unexpectedly, they did stumble with the whole bad guy soliloquy explaining his dastardly plans. But that's not too big a deal.

One thing that kind of went over my head was how Kirk figured out the whole emerging from the black hole thing. I guess he's heard the story about his father a bunch of times, but it seemed a little fishy to me.

There were, however, some week spots. First off, the Romulan ship. For an interstellar mining ship, it seemed to have an inordinate amount of places from which people could fall into oblivion. How about some handrails? And with everyone jumping from one level to another, how long can it be until someone twists an ankle or worse? Really, that ship seemed designed to ensure a lawsuit.

Then there was the classic alien life form that somehow seemed adapted to torture humans. That's quite an evolutionary coincidence there, now isn't it? (I know, this is totally unoriginal. But it's true.) And did anyone else expect something about waterboarding during that scene? Why the hell was that guy strapped to a board in the middle of a huge puddle? I was expecting him to be either dunked under or electrocuted. Of course, with Niro standing in the water with him, electrocution seemed like a bad idea. I'm glad Niro thought of that as well.

Let's see... I kind of thought the Hoth scene was a little random. I know they had to do the introductions, but come on. Oh yeah, it was also strange that they had no one above the age of about 25 on the ship. I don't know about you, but when the captain steps out, I'd kind of like the guy driving the bus to have some relevant experience. Hey, let's give the keys to the guy who (whom?), like 2 hours ago, we were going to kick out of the academy! Even though he's shown massive insubordination, wasn't even supposed to be on the ship, and has zero experience doing anything remotely related to fighting in space. There had to have been someone on that ship who'd actually been to space before, and who maybe would have been a little less shoot-from-the-hip. Oh, and did anyone notice the tall, awkward guy from Legally Blond, before he got booted from the listening post by Uhura? He got a line, and good for him. I was afraid we'd be seeing him typecast, but obviously not so. He didn't obviously die (though I could have missed it), so hopefully we'll be seeing him in the next one. Of course, since Ahora showed him up in front of everyone, he'll probably request reasignment. Not cool, Uhura.

Another things was how Uhura was able to immediately recognize the Romulan transmission. She listened, with a single bluetooth earbud no less, for like 3 seconds and she's sure of what she heard. I guess the languages may be distinct enough, but frankly, Niro sounded just like everyone else on that damn ship (except Scotty!) so how could they tell? Come to think of it, EVERY Romulan sounded like he came from the midwest or something. Yet Uhura could tell they were Romulans... Convenient. All I can say is, I remember The Hunt for Red October, and the sonar guys in that movie (which was awesome) had those big Bose noise canceling headphones on, and even then they had to concentrate for a while before deciding what they were hearing. I guess, as Ahora said, she's got good ears. Or something. I wasn't really paying attention. Come to think of it, wouldn't there be software that could recognize Romulan? Aren't already like half way there now? It what, two hundred years in the future and we still haven't gotten voice recognition working? That's not encouraging.

All in all, a fun movie to watch. They did a good job not taking themselves too seriously, and they provided a lot of action. I'd recommend seeing it (and you all know that my recommendations are like another man's orders).