Hey there all of you. Sorry for not doing a post in AAAGGGEESS, but will try and keep it up from now on. And anyway I want to start my ‘return’ with a film review (Sorry if people find it a bit long. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERTS).
Yes while not deciding to go to the university ball last night, one of my mates suggested I go and see Star Trek at the local cinema with a few other mates, as it was the first night showing. Now not being a true ‘trekkie’, perhaps the only one in the group, i decided to go for two reasons. One, its a JJ Abrams film, having been a fan of MI3 and Cloverfield, I wanted to see how he re-invisioned it (and judging by the trailers it looked like a good film anyway), bringing me onto my second point, I wanted to give it a chance, to see whether it was my kinda thing and to see whether the ‘re-invisioning’ (if that is a word) panned out.
So, I get to the cinema, which is packed considering it is a cinema in a sea-side town in west wales, watch a few trailers and adverts, then role the opening credits. What i then see for the next two hours or so is an astonishing achievement, it had me going from the dramatic opening scene, to a ‘here is a hint that there will be sequels’ ending. I found Chris Pine’s James Kirk to be a very relaxed, funny, rebelious and intelligent lead, right from the scene where he is in a bar and bumps into a few of the Enterprise crew, including a very beautiful Uhuru (Zoe Saldana). I also found Zachery Quinto to be a perfect Spock, forget Syler, this is the role that I will remember him by, playing a half-vulcan, half-human role with such calm, intriguing intelligence and, in one or two scenes, emotion.
While Dr Leonard ‘Bones’ Mccoy (Karl Urban) and Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott (Simon Pegg) also play two wonderfully entertaining roles, Simon Pegg especially, though it came to me as no surprise that he plays a similar role to that which he played in ‘MI3’, a character who isn’t seen that much, but when we he is on screen, provides some more comic relief. Not that i’m saying that he provides all the comedy, Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Uhuru all take their turns in the comic spotlight.
But don’t see this as a comedy spectacle, the balance of Action and Sci-Fi is perfectly executed, both blending together without the need of a romance inbetween (like you get in, say, Transformers). This film is though in essence about Spock and Kirk, JJ himself saying in an interview with TotalFilm (Issue 153, April 2009) “They were the characters I cared about. I didn’t feel like I would be very good at doing a completely seperate space adventure that had the Star Trek name on it. But going back to the beginning… that was more interesting.”
All in all an absolutely brilliant film, appealing to the hardcore ‘trekkies’ (my mates afterwards said that they thought it was absolutely brilliant), the semi-fans, and the ‘newbies’, a film that I would definately recommend anyone go and see. I just can’t wait for the sequels, because there wouldn’t be a reason not to as i’m sure this will be a phenomenal success, but only as long as JJ directs them, as the clapping from the audience the film got when the credits rolled was well and truly deserved.
*****
Aaron's Film Blog 