Ralph's Movie Reviews: STAR TREK

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

STAR TREK

Science fiction adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Chris Hemsworth: Captain George Kirk of the U.S.S. Kelvin
Chris Pine: his son James Tiberius Kirk as an adult
Zoe Saldana: Cadet Nyota Uhura
Bruce Greenwood: Captain Christopher Pike, commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise
Zachary Quinto: the adult Spock, Pike’s second in command
Eric Bana: Captain Nero, commander of the renegade spaceship
Karl Urban: Leonard “Bones” McCoy, the Enterprise’s resident physician
John Cho: Hikaru Sulu, pilot of the Enterprise
Anton Yelchin: another crew member Pavel Chekov
Leonard Nimoy: the elder Spock
Simon Pegg: master technician Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

REVIEW
They have wisely played down the romantic love interest aspect and instead devoted most of the time to the on-going battle between the forces of good and evil. You will have to see the movie to find out which side wins out.

The special effects are nothing short of amazing thanks to some excellent CGI and the action is virtually non-stop. The acting is bang-on with a smattering of humour from time to time. Nothing outrageous, just the chuckle type of thing in keeping with the serious nature of their undertaking.

Although committed “Trekkers” can never get enough, others will find the running time of two hours plus a tad too long.

CLASSIFICATION

for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
James T. gets into a barroom fight and gets a cut on the eyebrow and just below his left eye. At first the wound is jagged but it soon becomes just a curve, sometimes disappearing completely only to reappear in later scenes.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.