Star Trek 11

Woon:
7 Years since the last movie and 4 years after the television series ended, this is the much anticipated JJ Abrams reboot. Made for $150M and targeted for a more "general audience", there is no doubt that the franchise owners are hoping for a revival to match that of the 90's.

I am not a fan of TOS but I did follow TNG, enjoyed a bit of DS9, tried to get into VOY but by ENT, the stories were becoming all too familiar and the battles all to infrequent. The canon definitely needed something spectacular. I was hesitant at first that this film would be diluted by TNG centric jokes and the other Star Trek directives of peace, love and conflict resolution without violence. This was not the case and it definitely delivers.

Action scenes were fluid, the level of detail superb and the cinematography extremely grand. The only complaint is to turn down the lens flare. Not every external space shot needs it. The acting was adequate and given that it was a prequel, the writers pretty much had the freedom to do what they wanted as long as the actors were the right colour and had the right accent.

Overall, a solid effort and not a hint of cliffhanger-ness. Score: "Worth a Friday night viewing"

Holland:
TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT? It took me a couple of minutes to decipher these acronyms, so I am clearly not much of a Star Trek fan, and I certainly would not consider myself a Trekkie, or is it Trekker? I therefore hope that none of the die-hards read this and take offense that an ignorant outsider is reviewing their precious, precious movie. Actually, given that Trekkies are all four-eyed weaklings with a rudimentary knowledge of astrophysics and a penchant for made-up languages and dress-ups, I don't really care what they think.

But enough of the unnecessarily derogatory taunting, because I actually quite enjoyed this movie. I think the story was well thought out, with the characters introduced in a believable and entertaining way, and it had a good twist of sorts that ensures that the franchise can move into the future unencumbered by the baggage/events of the previous 10 movies. Based on my limited experience - I've seen most of the movies and a couple of episodes of TOS and TNG - this was a bone fide Star Trek experience, complete with ridiculous time-warps, over-the-top space battles and in-the-nick-of-time improvised weapons.

The one gripe I have that totally bugged the hell out of me was a totally contrived and way too coincidental sequence of events leading to Kirk meeting one of his 'old' friends. What are the chances that a person ending up in a random location on a barren planet would, within five minutes, just happen to be saved from certain death by a stranger who just happens to be the one person in the universe that can help him save Earth? Well, I guess it worked in The Empire Strikes Back.

I agree with Woon on the CGI lens flare. Seems like they were trying a bit too hard to make it look like it was actually filmed in space. I think the score "Worth a Friday night viewing" is a bit generous and doesn't give you much room to move up in the scoring system when you actually see a really good movie, especially seeing as "See it on opening night" really isn't an option at this point.

Overall, an entertaining if somewhat forgettable film, like most of the Star Treks. Score: "See it in the cinema, but wait for a 2-for-1 offer"

Woon:
The Force explains a lot in the Star Wars galaxy, but no such luck in the Star Trek one.

Holland:
There might be some lame-arse Vulcan mind thing going on, but I don't buy it.

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So that's it for this review. It seems kind of poetic that our attempt at rebooting the Holland vs Woon franchise is though a successful reboot of another franchise. At least I hope it is poetic, and not ironic.

As always, comments are more than welcome, and are cherished like diamonds magically falling from the sky into our desperately outstretched hands.