johnlink ranks STAR TREK (2009)
Finally got around to seeing STAR TREK, which was easily one of my most anticipated titles of the summer. I’m not a huge Trekkie, but I did enjoy the Next Generation stuff quite a bit. I’m less familiar with the original series, having seen maybe a half dozen episodes. But still, the characters (as well as their trademark lines) are iconic enough to make these people familiar. I was curious, though not worried, about how this origin story would work.
The new STAR TREK (2009) tells the story of young Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the not-quite-yet-crew of the USS Enterprise as they face off against the Hulk a bad alien.
I saw STAR TREK in theaters on 5.28.09. It was my first viewing of the film.
NOTE: THIS RANKING UTILIZES THIS SITE’S ORIGINAL SYSTEMIC ARTICLE WRITING METHOD. THE METHOD BY WHICH THE RANKINGS WERE ARRIVED AT, HOWEVER, REMAINS THE SAME.
FILM
I bet I would give JJ Abrams even higher marks if I was more familiar with all the in-joking going on. But as far as putting this movie on screen, I was highly impressed. Classic editing in the first scene when a doctor tells a young mother to ‘PUSH’ followed by a shot of a space ship pulling out of a small hole. Awesome. SCORE: 6
MOVIE
Really, as far as summer blockbusters go, you can’t go wrong with Abrams. He has a knack for telling good stories which 98% of big studios fuck up now. Hell, he even gave us a highly watchable MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE 3 when Tom Cruise was at the apex of annoying. That said, I think I had a little of the buzz killed by the uber-hype going in. This movie was the most fun of the summer so far, and it really made me want to see another STAR TREK movie. But I did feel a bit like this was absolutley a launching pad for the franchise reboot. SCORE: 7.
ACTING
Good work all around. Nobody is bad, and each individual is allowed to explore their characters. The trap of doing an impersonation of the 60s actors is avoided. Speech patterns are often alluded to (especially with Bones), but nobody is trying to recreate their counterparts. I don’t know who this Chris Pine kid is who played Kirk, but he is a solid base for the crew around him. And Sylar was born to be Spock. Small side note, I thank this movie for putting Leonard Nimoy and Abrams in a room together so that the latter could get the former to play his God-like character in the series FRINGE. SCORE: 7
WRITING
The people who came up with this story were brilliant. Mild spoiler here, but they found a way to explain how this new Trek universe can exist, alongside retro Trek, which was brilliant in its simplicity. The dialogue popped, and everyone got to get in their famous phrases without any of it feeling too forced. The story, as I mentioned before, definitely feels like the set up to a franchise rather than a full climactic story. However, the writers work within the confines of this character introduction to still give us a decent villain and hero scenario. All told, the script was far smarter, and much less campy, then I expected. SCORE: 8
FINAL TALLY
FILM: 6; MOVIE: 7; ACTING: 7; WRITING: 8
6+7+7+8+0=28
FINAL SCORE: 7
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