HardWired on Film: Star Trek (2009)

Let me start by saying that I watched Star Trek a few weeks back at the IMAX cinema in London, the biggest screen in the UK. One of the major pulls of watching films here is that the screen is as tall as 5 double-decker buses stacked on top of each other. Add this to the 11,000w, 42 speaker surround system and you've got yourself the ultimate cinematic experience. I urge everyone reading this to go and see a film in this format at least once in your lifetime. However, the experience that I had watching Star Trek may differ from those who saw it on a normal size cinema screen.

That out of the way, Star Trek is a stunning work of cinema. Don't make the mistake of assuming that you are reading a review written by the average "action is the only and best genre" teenager. I'm a film student and therefore can appreciate any and every film genre, in any context. This being said, however, many of the technical film reviewers have complained that the lens flair has been overused in this movie, and I wholeheartedly agree. There is a line with this kind of effect, and Abrams molested it good and proper, but this is the only bad thing I have to say about the entire film.

Let's start with the casting. Trekkies around the world have been sweating ever since the reboot/prequel was announced, and the main worry was that the casting wouldn't accurately depict the original crew of Kirk, Spock, Bones, etc. Many have even suggested that finding new actors to play the established characters would be impossible. Luckily, they couldn't have been more wrong. Chris Pine was amazing throughout. Funny, angry, womanizing and intelligent, often all at the same time. The best part of his depiction for me was the way in which he managed to mirror the characteristics of Shatner's Kirk exactly, as well as adding his own legacy to the depiction. Zachary Quinto (Heroes) also does a great job with Spock, despite competition others playing the role throughout the film. As a character, Spock is one of the most difficult characters to play, as you need to portray emotion effectively without physically showing it, and Quinto does about as well as anyone else has in the past (or present). The rest of the cast are all excellent, Bones is the perfect casting and he sounds exactly like the original in every way. Simon Pegg as Scotty didn’t get as much screen time as I would have hoped (that’s probably just my bias towards the actor), but in the small amount of time he is given he delivers the famous Scotty one-liners as humorously as the first time they were said.

Concerning the storyline, J.J Abrams uses the famous Roddenberry effect (Google it for spoilers), which allows him a lot of room in which to tell the story of this film and that of subsequent sequels. Fast-paced and full of action and comedy, Star Trek is highly enjoyable for both action fans and those who are looking for more of a personality in their movies, with intricacies such as character development based on past events (as it turns out this aspect in particular is key to the narrative throughout). The enemy is as ruthless and fearsome as we have come to expect from most Hollywood antagonists, and he has the mother of all motives, which always helps improve the realism.

All in all, Star Trek is a giant of 2009 action cinema and cinema in general, and is easily the best Star Trek film to date (yes, it’s better than The Wrath of Khan). Perhaps most importantly, however, it will please both die-hard Trekkies and new audiences alike.

9.5/10