While I thought that Star Trek was a perfectly adequate summer movie, there is no way that it’s worth the hype (and I would say that it probably wasn’t worth a 9 out of 10 on the RevSF rating system, but now that I think about it, there probably haven’t been any Trek movies other than Khan that were much better, which highlights the limitations of the RevSF ranking system and my personal prejudices both).
Here’s a list of pros and cons for the movie. There will be some mild spoilers, but if you haven’t seen the movie by now, you probably won’t care.
pro: Uhura is treated like a valuable member of the crew with actual skills.
con: Spock’s character arc is all about how he really does have emotions underneath his logical exterior, which totally ruins the whole point of being a Vulcan.
con: The narrative bends over backwards to put Chekhov and every other third-string character from the original series in the movie. I could care less about those people.
pro: The guy in red dies right away.
pro: Simon Pegg is far more interesting than the original Scotty. Plus, his fake Scottish accent is far more authentic.
con: Simon Pegg bears almost no resemblance to Scotty.
con: Like subsequent series, at several key junctions the plot hinges on technical deus ex machina.
con: Zachary Quinto is every bit as bland as Spock as he was as Sylar. Actually, he plays the parts identically.
pro: The new Spock and the new Kirk have some of the same mannerisms as the originals, but without it being the weird parody that it usually ends up as when people try to do that.
con: A Starfleet cadet who hasn’t even graduated the academy is promoted to the rank of Captain, which is the navy equivalent of Colonel. WTF?!?!
pro: Miniskirts rock.
con: The plot of the movie is an angry non-human with a spaceship tries to blow things up. This is also the plot of Star Trek II, III, VI, Generations, and Nemesis.
Basically I think this movie is a sentimental homage to a series that I never particularly liked in the first place. So I didn’t have all the same emotional buttons pressed as all you weird trekkies.
So that’s my petty blog venting for the day. Thank you for reading.