Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

I wasn’t a big fan of the original Star Trek TV series, but I did enjoy the movies and subsequent TV shows. Having a new Star Trek movie that reinvents original series and character premises is a welcome event, especially when you see and hear the results on a huge IMAX screen, which I just did.

Things I liked: 

• The young characters, especially Uhura (Zoe Seldana) and Bones (Karl Urban)
• The space drill scenes (very realistic)
• Scenes on Vulcan
• The opening sequence (Interesting crosscutting between Kirk’s father and his birth)
• The bar scene
• The green girl
• The ice creatures
• Leonard Nimoy (God bless him!)

Things I didn’t like:

• The music
• The rushed ending
• The random aliens
• Special effects at the end looking too fuzzy on the giant IMAX screen
• Too much jerky camera movement and split second editing, especially toward the end, make it really difficult to follow the action.

Several scenes stand out visually:

• The space drill above Vulcan and Earth
• The views of the tiny and hauntingly fragile space life boats drawing away from the destroyed starship in the opening sequence
• The Enterprise emerging from Titan’s atmosphere with Saturn and its rings in full splendor in the background

I enjoyed the film immensely, but I would have concentrated on fewer scenes with higher quality effects at the very end. I got the impression at the end of a “kitchen sink” approach, with the director and editor throwing just about everything they could think of at the screen. Plus, so much “hand held” camera movement seemed out of place given the availability of Star Trek’s “inertial damping” technology!

Copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis D. McDonald