Movie Review #6 Star Trek

Star Trek (2009) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto Directed by J.J. Abrams

Yup I said it before I will say it again, the summer is here! Started with Wolverine, and now we have the next blockbuster of May arriving with a bang. I'm am not a Star Trek fan really, I think the only movie I really liked was "The Undiscovered Country" (think that was Star Trek 5) with Spock's brother causing problems (it had a god theme or something). The rest sort of came and went, though I watched almost all of them, I never jumped up and cheered or anything...well looks like that streak is broken...for this flick...I jumped up and cheered (mostly because I was so thrilled that Wolverine (6.5 rating) wasn't going to be the best of the summer crop). Now I might guess that if you are a loyal fan of this franchise, there may be a few things that will irk you bit, and I had a couple as well, but like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, I was so happy it worked to see these characters again, I set aside my normal "what were they thinking there" mentality, and just went along for the ride (which is what summer movie viewing is all about). Star Trek takes place as a prequel to the TV series, and we learn throughout the film how all these characters ended up on the U.S.S. Enterprise together. Now again I'm not a huge fan or anything, but you would have to live in a shoebox if you are my age or around my age, to not know about these iconic characters. We all know what Kirk is suppused to sound like, or what Dr. McCoy should say (Dammit Jim i'm a doctor not a blogger!). I am very happy to report that, although it so rarely ever works to replay iconic characters with relatively unknown actors (see Superman Returns), it most certainly worked here. I don't know how it was done, but this cast hit a freakin grand slam with the crew from the Enterprise. Props to April Webster and Alyssa Weisberg for their great work in casting this movie. Chris Pine who i've never seen before, or at least don't remember if I had, kills as James T. Kirk, and it's hard for me to like a guy pretending to be Shatner, Zachary Quinto also makes Spock...I don't know kind of cool and layered. Simon Pegg (who is my boy...please see Run Fatboy Run or Shawn of the dead if you haven't) is awesome as Scotty, Anton Yelchin is hiliarous as Chekov, John Cho is solid as Sulu, Karl Urban is dead on as "bones" McCoy, and my oh my is Uhura (played well by Zoe Saldana...who is now forgiven for the poop known as Centerstage) freakin HOT!!! Even Eric Bana as a pissed off Romulan is cool. I had a feeling J.J. Abrams could handle this film, his retooling of the Mission Impossible movie (part 3) was very good work. He really does a nice job making a mediocre script come to life with awesome editing, and a very rocking cast. He allows (or has the balls to)give each character a new element that we have not seen before, and lets the actors both imitate, and explore the characters of the past to give us a new angle. Do not screw around on this people, I have seen the trailers, this might be the best of the summer (though I could be wrong), go out and see this movie, I don't give a crap if you hate the idea of going to a Star Trek movie, and I don't care if you are a loyalist who thinks replacing Kirk with a kid is sacrilegious...go out and do it...before I set my phasers to kill...ok ok that was dorky, but just go see it. I give it a very good 7.5 memorable Morgan Freeman lines from Shawshank (as always out of ten, and this is my highest mark yet) because Andy Dufrane would have stayed in his cell another week if he knew this movie was coming to the prison theater...then he would crawl through the poop of course after he saw it.

Food for thought: It's the summer people, gotta go classic every once in awhile, popcorn and a soda...and I even used a coupon thingy they gave me at the entrance. Though just so you know my coffee making skills are getting better, 1 1/2 shots espresso, 1 pump caramel, 1 pump vanilla, 1/2 scoop sugar, sprinkle of cinnamon, and steamed milk makes a great latte.