Star Trek The Future Begins Review
Posted by alvin on Sunday, 05.24.2009 01:20 AM
First review on the site! Here we go! To be perfectly honest, I have NEVER been a fan of Star Trek. I have always fancied myself as a Star Wars kind of a guy, so that's where I have been these past few years of my existence. I wasn't really into the tactical approach of Star Trek and prefered the balls out action of Star Wars. And if ever I did catch an episode, it was of the next generation with Professor X and Data; not the original cast of Kirk and crew which this new movie is based on.
So in the end I don't know what would merit my love for this new film. Would it be my ignorance to the series or it being a legitimate film? A little bit of both I guess...
The film was directed by JJ Abrams of Lost fame. From what I heard, he wasn't really a fan of the series either, so this might have been an influence on the more mainstream approach to tell this story to a modern audience. The movie is basically a reboot of the series telling the origin story of the USS Enterprise without necessarily spitting on the face of the original television series. I really don't want to get into spoiler territory but trust me, the plot is legitimately good so people with absolutely no knowledge of Star Trek lore would not be lost (see what I did there?)
The casting of actors for the film was really good. I don't know the legitimacy of those claims coming from someone who's not familiar with the original cast (except for Shatner as Kirk and Nemoy as Spock) but the new cast seems to be comfortable enough filling in the shoes of the old characters, especially Simon Pegg as Scotty! It's weird seeing Zachary Quinto as spock though since I relate him to Sylar from heroes so much that it creaks the character from time to time especially when he gets aggressive. Buzz around the watercooler from long time fans of the series seems to be positive overall so I think that these new people have proven themselves worthy atleast for now.
You may be Spock the space pimp but you'll always be Sylar to me
The movie is hella heavy on CG and most of it looks good apart from some close-up scenes where it would have been nicer to have used models instead. Most of it was not noticeable though, so I guess the end justifies the means. There was alot of excellent space battles which I pleasantly enjoyed especially when I was expecting the boring tactical type of fights I have seen from the TV series. ALOT OF EXPLOSIONS PEOPLE!!! COLORFUL EXPLOSIONS FTW!
Sound was good and appropriate for alot of the scenes. The score gave good subtlety to the scenes that needed it, as well as boosted the action when it needed to. The pacing was good as well, it really moved the story along nicely. Each character was given time to drop of their specific little quirks without sacrificing anything by creating small and sometimes comedic problems to address. Notable ones are Chekov's pronunciation problems as well as Sulu's driving mishaps. At the same time addressing the long time fan's needs for character references and setting aside these people from the typical red shirt crew that are expendable as hell.
Overall the movie had good rhythm and made a lasting impression. It sets up the series for another run of movies, and establishes this new crew playing old characters to a new audience. Definitely my favorite movie this year yet. SEE THIS MOVIE NOW PEOPLE!!!
