Star Trek (2009)

Directed by J.J. Abrams

Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman based on Gene Roddenberry's tv-series

Cast Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy, Zoe Saldana, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/

Reviewed by Päivi

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First, let me clarify one thing: I am a Star Wars fan and I have never really seen any Star Treks. So I saw the Star Trek directed by Lost creator J.J. Abrams open minded, without any expectations and no original story to compare it to. Trust me, all I knew was that there were characters named Kirk and Spock, and a spacecraft named Enterprise. And I have to say I was very pleased indeed in what I saw on the big screen: a fascinating space adventure, interesting characters, story well written and visually worth sitting in the theatre for a bit over two hours.

This version of Star Trek is like Batman Begins - it tells the origins of how James T. Kirk became the famous Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise and how Kirk and Spock became friends. Chris Pine is the young and restless - and fatherless - James Kirk, who tries to pick up girls in a bar when he meets a certain Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) who questions his future and tells him to join the space fleet if he wants to honor his father.


Kirk is sceptic but eventually turns out in the recruitment center next morning. Arrogant young man does not please everyone, especially one guy from the planet Vulcan with pointed ears (Zachary Quinto) but he becomes friends with the doctor McCoy (Karl Urban). With the help of McCoy Kirk gets through things he would not otherwise get, fights against a group led by (almost unrecognisable in his mask) Eric Bana's Captain Nero, and eventually turns from an arrogant, selfish youngster to a reliable guy worth of Captain's status.

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is something you would wish for a good space adventure: cool gadgets and technologies, interesting, brave characters and action that is still not happening on the expense of the story. The growth story of Kirk was very basic, but it worked in a reliable way. Some overacting from Pine especially in the beginning bugged me a bit, as did some extremely cheesy moments, but they did not spoil the overall experience, which was purely entertaining.

A nice addition is the original (from the tv-series in the 60's) Mr. Spock Leonard Nimoy's appearance, and based on the comments of friends' who have seen also the original shows, all characters are very loyal to the originals and all names, personalities and nationalities have been stored unchanged. The diversity of the Enterprise crew was something that I took notice, and I found them all fascinating, well done and well played characters.