Nerd Dads Review: STAR TREK

Yes, you've probably either already seen it or already know that it's the greatest movie ever made, thank you Gene Rodenberry, but I figured that Andrew and I get to see so few movies opening weekend any more, I'd be lax not to at least comment briefly on it.

First of all, I didn't have any desire to pay to see this thing in theaters until 1-2 weeks ago. I felt - and still do - that the print ads and magazine spreads all looked more like people performing cosplay roles than professional actors in a big budget remake. The trailers looked better, aside from the horrible snow monster sequence that debuted during LOST (it looked much better in the movie theater), but I still wasn't convinced. However, somewhere along the way this month, both The Wife™ and I changed our minds, so we went out for a date and hit the local AMC. (Not quite so weird a Mother's Day date when you consider that one of the first movies we saw as a couple was the first post-Generations Trek flick...)

It's good stuff. The problem/appeal of all previous Star Trek flicks has been that they were, essentially, the TV series on a bigger screen. Sure, they had bigger budgets, fancier special effects and a little more violence and blood, but they also had to play to the existing audience and hit the pre-requisite beats that we had come to expect of them. This Star Trek was fully conceived and created as a movie, based loosely - but not dismissively - on what had been done before. Because of that, the entire production just felt bigger, bolder and fresher.

The actors, who I had total misgivings about originally, pretty much all nailed their roles. Chris Pine was completely convincing as a young Kirk, not so much channeing Shatner directly as he was giving us Essence de Shat, despite almost slipping into a weird Christian Slater voice here and there. Zachary Quinto was solid enough as Spock, Urban was fantastic as Bones and Greenwood's Pike slayed. Pegg, Cho, Saldana and Yelchin gave us refreshing, yet recognizable performances as their respective characters as well. The only truly dd bit of casting (outside of Winona Ryder's go as Spock's mom) was Eric Bana. He did a great job, but was so unrecognizable under the makeup that I'm not sure why they even bothered to cast a name actor in the role.

The movie does come dangerously close to spiraling into fan service a few times with Bones, Scottie, etc. hitting their expected one liners, but it manages to pull out of it's potential nosedive each time, coming off more as blatant Easter Eggs than lame attempts to placate a notoriously rabid fanbase. No, the attempt to keep Trekkies from rioting was actually a rather inspired twist that has opened up the new Trekiverse to new and interesting possibilities. The best part is that it's a twist tha could have been utterly alienating to people from both sides of the fandom fence, and yet it works so well I'm still smiling about it as I type this.

So, familiar characters, new relationships, a fresh start and J.J. Abrams obsession with red balls of liquid that hover in mid air combine to give us one of the best, most (oddly enough) original summer blockbusters I've seen in a while.

Whoda thunk it?

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