STAR TREK

You know those big-budget films that come out every once in a while that restore your faith in Hollywood's production companies? This is one of those, ten-fold. Sure it's still technically a remake/incarnation/alternate retelling, but it'd be pretty damn hard to do it better than this.

James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), son of a dead revered commander who died saving the lives of James and James' mother, is convinced to go to the star fleet academy where he first butts heads with superior officer half-Vulcan half-human Spock (Zachary Quinto). Soon, however, the inexperienced cadets are called on an emergency mission and James stows away on the USS Enterprise, a ship which comes face to face with the Romulan ship who annihilated James' father the day of James' birth.

This package is very bright and shiny, and the action just keeps on coming. J.J. Abrams is directing, and though I haven't seen any of his other work he's earned himself a fan in this girl for solid edge-of-your-seat pacing, and the right balance of character development time interlaced with all the action. Of course he was working with friends Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman who wrote the excellent script. There was minimal exposition and great snappy dialogue, not to mention barking moments of brilliant black comedy.

Then there's the nod to be given to the technical stuff. This is what we should be using it for, not crap films where Will Ferrell is running away from a giant CG T-Rex. The special effects were awesome (my favorite scene has to be their crash landing on the giant drill). Also this is my nod to the soundtrack.

And finally ERIC BANA!! That's right bitches he gets his own section. He plays Nero and he's basically Hades combined with an evil version of Caesar with some sexy mixed in (ooh...that gravelly voice). First of all props to his costume/look designer because it took me half the film to recognize him. He actually had a good reason for why he wanted to kill James & co. (and no, it wasn't because he wanted to take over the world) and he made me sympathize with him in the fifteen seconds of explanation he got.

So even though this felt like a prequel and explained how James became captain of the USS Enterprise and got his crew together, it was amazing. One thing I was particularly impressed with was the character developments of Spock and James, and the choice of love interests. While I'm sure James' love interest is truly just around the corner, the choice was daring by the writers to leave her out in this film. It left time for James to focus on himself and only himself, on why he was doing what he was doing and what he wanted to accomplish. In contrast, giving Spock a human lover (even though he's a slightly secondary character to James) when he was struggling with his being half-human and half-Vulcan brought out his humanity.

This is a must-see.

-elln