Star Trek(2009)

Star Trek

Director: JJ Abrams

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, and Leonard Nimoy

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content.

Star Trek was very satisfying, like a delicious snack on a baby triceratops. I could get my teeth in to it and come out feeling pretty dang good. It wasn’t a full meal, but definitely enjoyable. For you Trekkies this is a real winner. It is a great prequel to the epic shows of Gene Rodenberry’s imagination, a tribute to the long standing tradition of Star Trek films.

My wife and I just got a new 40” Sony Bravia and a blu-ray player to go with it. We had a couple of friends over to break it in and we wanted a fun action movie that went heavy on the graphics to test out the new system. My wife loves the new Star Trek movie and so she decided that would be the flick to break in our new TV. We were not disappointed in the least. The first time we saw it was at the theater and I enjoyed it, and this time it was just as fun. My wife has seen it four or five times now.



What was great about this film was how true to form it stayed to the old movies. The actors were perfect young versions of our heroes Kirk, Spock, and Bones. They were very fun to watch on the screen, not a single one amateur or incapable of carrying out their role in this intense action/sci-fi thriller.

The plot was very Star Trek. There was time travel, phaser fights, fist-a-cuffs, and of course great space battles. There was also the perfect blend of advanced modern cinematography with the old school technology of a 1960’s era television show. This movie was a perfect prequel, which managed to not destroy the shows and movies of Star Treks past. The script and the plot were fun and exciting. There were of course the classic lines of the pessimistic ‘Bones” (Dr. McCoy) and Chekov still can’t pronounce his “V”s correctly. There was even a guest appearance of the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy.

Now comes the part that made this film not quite a full meal for the Flicks-a-saurus
Rex. It really felt like the director wanted to have an action piece in every single scene change. The characters couldn’t just beam down to the surface of a planet and let the story un fold, they had to crash land and climb out of a 40 foot hole and then be chased by giant monsters. It was like certain scenes ran out of momentum so they had to put in random action scenes to speed things up. In fact the film in general just seemed a little too rushed. The Enterprise sped across the galaxy in minutes headed in one direction and then turned around in and a few minutes were back at earth. There just wasn’t enough pacing throughout the film.

Overall however this was a perfect film to watch on the blu-ray. The effects were incredible, the action was great, and it was the perfect addition to a long history of fun Star Trek films. I’ll give this film a 7.5 out of ten, I good hearty snack!

Sex/Nudity – 5 out of 10 – We see a man and a woman making out in their underwear. He is on top of her but they are interrupted before too much can happen. A woman walks into her bedroom and has a conversation with her roommate who is lying on a bed in a bra and panties. The other woman is changing clothes and we see her in a bra and panties.

Violence/Gore – 6 out of 10 - A guy gets stabbed in the chest and dies. A person gets sucked through a hole in a space ship and floats outside in space dead. There are ship to ship battles with lots of explosions. There are a few fist fights with bloody noses and minor cuts and bruises. A few guys fall to their deaths, we don’t see them land but assume they died. There are some gun fights where people die. There is little to none in the gore category. No splattering blood, no gory deaths.

Profanity – 4 out of 10 – There are a few very minor sexual terms, minor swear words, and a few religious exclamations.