Star Trek XI

I don't know shit about fraking Star Trek,but in the hands of JJ Abrams I felt safe walking in and in the end felt that I had made a right choice seeing this.

I'm usually quite skeptical about sci-fi movies,this mass geekery of silly costumes and even sillier dialogue-most of this franchise additions or remakes have either of two purposes:to make a crapload of money in the box office by creating something that existing fans might forever denounce and boycott,or something strictly for fans that everyone else finds inaccessible.This Star Trek however,will satisfy both Trekkies and noobs alike I expect.

I liked most the directness of the story-there was no pausing to highlight some cool gadget or obscure fan-fact,leaving fanciness out of the equation the film stuck to a very practical angle.No frilly romances,pompous drama,no excess-it was trim,clear-headed and cautious about every detail in the story.On the downside,its this vagueness in the plot that kills it too for some reason,I felt for a major part of the film things felt too neatly into place and a lot of things just happened to happen at the most convenient times.It was like it ran on clock that rung every 15-20 minutes to call for an action scene,and between these action scenes ran a series of menial events that feel too organized-trouble would ensue,only for loose ends to be tied together by the simplest of answers-ie someone would just teleport their way out of there before the last second.Happily drunk with plot devices (terms like "red matter","time continuum" were thrown around freely when required),this pattern would ride up to the very end:concluding on a fairy-tale ending even a pony could predict.

Besides that,the CGI was amazing and complimented well by the music-the ensemble cast was very strong,Chris Pine proves more than a blue-eyed pretty face and Zachary Quinto,Eric Bana and John Cho (whose single fight scene I was very pleased by) deserve praise.I wasn't too happy about what they turned Simon Pegg into-I'm a huge fan of his (since the Shaun of the Dead days),but to hire a talented actor only to restrict him to play the village idiot just infuriates me-the same thing happened with Pegg in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People,Run Fatboy Run-I'd prefer he'd be like Ricky Gervais (who reportedly turns down more than half of the offers made to him) and be more selective with parts,to avoid this foolish typecast he's forcing himself into.

That's my critique.I'm sure any other review would've spent more time talking about other stuff,certainly not a whole paragraph on Simon Pegg's very,very small and unessential contribution.That's what matters to me anyway,before and after I'm still completely uninterested in Star Trek but wouldn't mind seeing another Star Trek movie,as long as they throw in something else (in this case,it was JJ Abrams in the directors seat+Eric Bana as a villain & John Cho kicking ass).

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