Saturday, May 9, 2009

Star Trek

"Star Trek" is some sort of attempt to monetize a bygone series that lays just perfect untouched by my standards. I'm not a Trekkie by any means, I have a fondness for the show and get some of the jokes, etc. I'm sure that J.J. Abrams' new film is not an embellisher. It's full of overblown special effects, performances, and dialogue, and I don't like it. Some of it is pretty good, actually, but altogether, it's dominated by its visuals, that are numbing after a while. It seems like action films these days are made with the sensibility that the audience pays to see shit being blown up.

"Star Trek" is in no way an exception to this rule. J.J. Abrams' amazing computer generated dreamcoat is not at all satisfying. Admittedly, there's a little more to "Star Trek" then that. Namely, it's Zachary Quinto as Spock. The actor is able to keep his emotions believably in check like his predecessor (who also makes an appearance). Upon this building block, "Star Trek" shows stabilization. He's matched by a decent Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, who befriends Spock after some academic troubles. This is also after Nimoy has instructed Kirk to verbally dismember Spock so he can captain the Enterprise. This scene is a bizarre and mistaken interjection here, and it seems utterly detached for Kirk, who seems to be presented as a heroic character. Here he does something kinda sadistic. Not that Spock has not been mistreated before. We all know he's half-human, half-Vulcan, and he's subject to some bullying on his planet. His planet also gets bullied, by the stereotypical Nero, played by a totally misused Eric Bana. He isn't anywhere as good as he is in the Spielberg masterpiece "Munich." He's another reason the film can't reach greatness. I couldn't stop thinking about how different Bana was here, how boring.

When the film boards the Enterprise, it goes right. Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Anton Yechlin all turn in good performances as Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov respectively. Bruce Greenwood is a very uninspired choice to play Pike. Zoe Saldana is Uhura, and she's okay. But I'm drifting into a type of nostalgia. The references to the original series were nice: the beaming, the guns, etc. Did it need a new place, on a new launching pad for possibly another line of spinoff films? No. I said it last time with Cloverfield, which was superior, and now, for old time's sake: Better luck next time, J.J. C+

No comments: