Yes, that’s right, I saw Star Trek again. A friend of mine hadn’t seen it yet and didn’t want to go alone so I figured what the hell, it’s a fun movie. And it still is. The movie still works despite all of its flaws. They still festered in the back of my mind while I watched but I was still taken in and going along with it.
My friend on the other hand kind of hated the movie. While he admitted it was entertaining enough, he just couldn’t get into the huge gaps in story logic that the movie takes to get from place to place. I think that’s what your enjoyment of the movie hinges on. If you can get past those, it’s a pretty fun ride of a movie. He’s kind of a stickler on little story details and I guess he’s a bit more of a Trekkie than he gives himself credit for. He seemed genuinely peeved that they basically wiped out more or less an entire alien species that I guess is kind of important to the Trek mythos.
Like I said before though, I didn’t really care. I have no baggage when it comes to Trek. I call that actual character stakes, which I’ll give the movie that. It definitely seems to try to rock the boat as much as possible when it comes to canon while still being somehow respectful. I think having Leonard Nimoy there helps seal the deal for a lot of people.
The one thing that was really cemented in my head on this second viewing was not just how good the cast is in their respective roles, but especially Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. There is just a great movie star vibe coming off of him and I can see him having a pretty great career after this. And he seems to have some genuine acting ability in the way of taking on incredibly different roles. You may, or may not, remember him from Joe Carnahan’s Smoking Aces and he’s virtually unrecognizable in the movie. This didn’t really click that this was the same guy until this second viewing and he’s great in both. But this one really feels like he’s showing off his potential movie star cred and I think he can pull it off. And he might be able to do interesting off the wall independent type movies as well. I really look forward to seeing what else this guy can do in future roles.
I liked Zachary Quinto’s Spock a little less this time. The differences in the way Nimoy and Qunto play Spock just shows how good Nimoy had that role down for all those years. Quinto give it a kind scary, almost sociopathic interpretation of pent up emotions while Nimoy’s got a whole Zen coolness thing about him that’s just so much better.
So, it holds up, thank goodness. Still fun and even those big leaps in story logic and truck-sized holes in the script only really bother once you head back to the parking lot. Probably won’t watch it again but that’s only because there’s better stuff out there to see but I do look forward to that eventual sequel. With enough time given to the script, it has the potential to be leagues better. And that will be worth watching a few times, hopefully.
And yeah, still laughed when Tyler Perry came on the screen.
And still got a little blinded by the first batch of lens flares.
A Film Log 