Review (Movie): Star Trek

7.5 out of 10

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood

I am not a Trekkie. Or Trekker. Or whatever the preferred label is. In any case, you don't have to be a long-time fan. The movie is good all on its own!

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away... Wrong franchise. Stardate 1234.567 - or whatever - Evil Romulans have come through a spacial rift and have destroyed a Federation vessel. About 20 years later, James T Kirk is still acting out but manages to get himself shanghaied into Starfleet Academy, where he meets up with what will become his crew. He takes over the Enterprise and saves the day. There is a little time travel, some funky technology and a ton of laughs. It's the last that really surprises me because I've seen other Star Trek movies.

I had heard nothing but complimentary reviews for this movie. Generally, that worries me. But since they were all from people I trusted, I am very glad I went. I had no expectations of story or effects. I knew who the characters were but thanks to several screenwriting articles, I knew that everything but the names were subject to change without notice.

Wow! Characterization. Back story. Humour. As well as the requisite blowing up of evil aliens, technobabble and social commentary. It was quite strange to see characters that have been around for 30 years be less than 30 years old. There were not a lot of highly recognized actors cast. I'd seen many of them before, here and there, but there wasn't A STAR.

And did I mention that it was funny. Laugh out loud funny. Most of the laughs came from the characters and not the situation, which is even more challenging. Younk Kirk as a horn dog was hysterical. As was Uhura shutting him down... not to mention her getting in Spock's grill. I snickered when Spock giving a one-fingered Vulcan salute to his prejudiced race. Scotty, Bones, Sulu and even Chekov all got some giggles. Intelligent humour, Hollywood, keep it up.

It was fun and worthy and we don't get nearly enough summer releases like that. Go see. Even if you don't know the Star Trek universe, you will be able to follow the story of young people stepping into their destinies.