STAR TREK FILM REVIEW: TAKE TWO

As is stated in an earlier blog entry, Paramount Pictures put out the word that they wanted early blogs and reviews of the special Chicago March 30th showing of "Star Trek" withheld until the week of the official opening. At Sam Locke's request, I pulled his review in order to keep him out of hot water with Paramount. Now, with his permission and Paramount's blessing, here is his SPOILER FREE review of "Star Trek."
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
JTK

And Now a Special Film Review from Chicago Actor/Writer/Director and Improviser Sam Locke.  This is the REAL DEAL on Star Trek, opening May 8th 2009.
JK

Space. The Final Frontier. This is the 11th voyage of the Starship Enterprise, across the silver screen. Its  continuing mission, is to entertain, showing us strange new worlds, seeking out new life and civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Last night, my girlfriend and I were able to see a free screening of the new, J.J. Abrams produced, Star Trek film, courtesy of a contest sponsored by AICN’s own Capone.  Capone explained, before the film started that we were seeing the film before most of the members of the press, and to write what we wanted about the film, because he would. So, I am doing just that.

Let me start by saying I’ve been up and down about the film before the Texas Screening AICN did, in which nothing but positive reviews were generated. I was worried about casting a new group of people in the roles of characters we’d already grown to know and love. Characters embodied by particular actors, as opposed to, say, James Bond or Batman who’ve been played by more actors than I care to recount.

Without hitting any kind of spoiler alert, let me start by saying the film is extremely entertaining. Each actor perfectly embodies the spirit of the character, without becoming an SNL-style impression (Chris Pine perfectly captures James T. Kirk’s swagger, confidence, sense of humor and courage, without as many dramatic pauses. Zachary Quinto finds a nice balance in Spock’s struggle with his emotional human side, and logical Vulcan heritage. The moment that Karl Urban walks onto the screen and meets Kirk for the first time, he IS Leonard “Bones” McCoy. Simon Pegg, when he finally appears, is perfect as a younger Scotty.). And they found an interesting way to explain the differences between this film, and the previous continuity. (Just in case, *spoiler* if you haven’t already heard, the film deals with time travel/paradoxes. *spoiler ends*)

The story itself is fun, and definitely a reboot, but the introductions were handled in a great way, keeping it from being completely bogged down in character exposition (though, I feel the villain, Nero, could have used some more.). I’m hoping the film does well in theaters, now that we have character introduction out of the way, so that we can see the crew begin to gel on their continuing mission.

I will say one thing that irked me about the film, and the trailer. It’s not really a spoiler, as it’s been in every preview of the film: At no point, do I ever need to see a ten-year-old James T. Kirk, steal his step dad’s convertible, jump out of it as it flies off of a cliff, and declare his name in defiance. The next time you see Kirk is all we need to see to know that he’s a bit of a loose cannon.

That said, the film is a really fun roller coaster, definitely better than the later “Next Generation” films, not quite as good as Wrath of Khan.

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