Star Trek

Summation: not that bad. Read on!

You know how critics of all shapes and sizes wear out that hoary old cliche that runs something along the line of 'an exercise in tedium, punctuated by bouts of action'? Well, Star Trek could well be described as an exercise in action, punctuated by bouts of tedium. Thankfully, J.J. Abrams did not horribly mangle a wonderfully well-loved franchise that has seen better days and was on the verge of dying out completely, following the tepid performance and subsequent cancellation of Enterprise.

He did kinda kick it around a bit though.

Time-travel is such a well-worn trope and general audience-pleaser in the Star Trek oeuvre that it's possible to make a story involving whales and time-travel that still makes more sense than the plot of this latest iteration. How Abrams manages to screw time-travel up is left as an exercise for the viewer. He does it in a minor manner, mind you, mostly concerning plot that doesn't really impact on the rest of the movie in a notably negative way, but it does leave the hardcore- and even the casual-Trekkie with a little confusion and bafflement.

Good things: The dialogue, the casting and probably what most people will remember, the CGI was good. Actually, scratch that, the CGI was great. Seriously. I am very very glad that they did not skimp out on the CGI. One of the continuing historical weaknesses of the Star Trek genre has been the low-quality special FX, which generally gives the series a vaguely campy feel. It's difficult to take a hostile alien encounter in space (with pew pew lasers, no less) seriously if all you see is people falling awkwardly off chairs and sparks flying off chunky grey metal boxes. There's a level of professionalism, production values and grown-up adultness in this movie that really creates a much stronger immersive experience when bad shit happens. You see people die; not in a gratuitous, gory sense, but you can't mistake it. The explosions are loud, bright and geniunely enthralling; the thuds and slams of fists against faces are satisfyingly meaty. And most importantly, we get to see other parts of the fucking ship than just the bridge! In addition, hearing characters other than the main ones spouting scientific-sounding background chatter during conflict scenes is a good touch.

In fact, the CGI in the movie strikes me a good deal better than atleast two other major special FX monsters: Spiderman 3 and Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. In the former, despite the billion-dollar budget, the CGI looked terrible in places, namely the fights between Spidey and...everyone else. In the latter, the opening scene is a gorgeous interstellar battle that eventually runs into boring and confusing. Star Trek still makes sure the CGI contributes, rather than takes over the movie.

All in all, it's a pleasant revival of a franchise that was thought to be long overdue to be put out to pasture. It's worth your money, and more importantly, your time.