Song of the Day: “Breed” by Snake River Conspiracy

Star Trek

Director: J. J. Abrams
Genre: Sci-Fi/Adventure/Action
Year: 2009

Ok, so I am not a big Star Trek fan. At all. I do not know what the difference is between a Klingon and a Romulan is aside from one race potentially being better at clinging than the other. I know no details of ships and never watched a full episode of the shows – mostly because I could not make it through without falling asleep or changing the channel. I also could not tell you why there is a Captain Kirk and a Captain Piccard on the same ship, I guess one came after the other? Which came first, the chicken or the egg, I could not answer that either. Surely, you get my drift – I am a complete Star Trek neophyte and had only managed to sit through one of its prior movies and that only because I was dragged to it by a friend to whom I owed a favor and had to double on a date with his girlfriend’s uglier friend (that night was so not worth it).

I preface this review with those details mostly because I am well aware of the cult following this show has attracted over the years and no matter what I say, somebody is going to hate me for it; this is the perspective of somebody that is looking at this film entirely for what it is knowing nothing of what came before. That said, I liked it! Maybe because it was nothing like anything Star Trek I have ever seen before, and because it held my attention, had an entertaining script, made use of visual technology and did not bore me to death with endless speeches regarding space travel. This was, as far as I am concerned, only one small step below Serenity in enjoyment.

The backgrounds, the stories, the prior plots, the origins, I knew nothing about, prior to watching this movie and frankly it did not matter. This being essentially a look back at the beginning of things with the Enterprise, allows for you to have a completely empty head and still come out like you watched and got the most out of it while – as I understand it – still working under the context that has been set by the show and previous movies.

So, on to the plot. There is a new ship that requires a new crew and a lot of young blood is trying to fill the spots. The best of the best graduates (Spock) are being recruited, along with a young man (Kirk) with a promising future but a seeming lack of focus. Meanwhile, across the Universe(s?) a Romulan ship decides to put to waste the Vulcan planet. They have their reasons for taking such actions…mostly vengeance. Upon finding this, the Federation decides to act, but when the Enterprise Captain falls into Romulan hands, the young crew is forced to take actions into their own hands.

With versatile characters and an entertaining story, this is about as much as you can as for a Sci-Fi movie. It has humor, it has action, it has thrills and it even has a bit of romance. The cast is young and though here and there one of them flounders, I think that for the most part they all did their job in making the most out of their roles.

There are a few technicalities which put a furrow on my brow, I will not lie, starting with the fact that black holes are massive gravitational nodes, not time travel warp holes; there is also the red matter which is…what? Besides cool red fluid called red matter that can achieve amazing collapses in matter; there is also a few scenes which are a little too convenient and border on an eye roll, but nothing too damaging. Going into this film I was determined not to let the technicalities bother me and if you can breeze past a few of those, this movie is actually a thrill to watch and easy to get into. And with a good sense of story telling and usage of visual effects, there is really no way you can go wrong, specially since it is clean enough that you can take the family with you (save for the very little ones that might freak out at scary looking aliens….or a hot chick in her underwear).

Rating:
Comments: There is some sci-fi action here to be expected, with explosions and blasts. There is some hand to hand combat and violence, some intense scenes and graphic images (alienish stuff). But over all it is a pretty clean movie, early teens and up should be able to enjoy it.
Quote: Spock: We are traveling at warp speed. How did you manage to beam aboard this ship?
Kirk: You’re the genius. You figure it out.