Movie Review: Star Trek

I feel like I don't have the clearance to write about Star Trek, like you have to actually know something or everything about the history of the franchise to evaluate the new version. But as an uninitiated, I have a few complaints. I should start by saying that this movie seemed to have real soul, a soul of its own, which is rare for the re-hashing of an old brand. But what was with turning James Kirk into James Dean? All of his recklessness always being rewarded & vindicated was irritating. But also an out-of-date dumb American trope which didn't work in this context. Is that what we want the morals of our movies to be, that if you're destined to be the captain of the Enterprise, you can swagger, cheat, & punch your way to the top deck, then absolve yourself by saving the day? Won't somebody think of the children!

So if Kirk seemed like a Bush-ian frat boy, it was unfair to put the whiny young Spok next to old Leonard Nimoy's gravitas. Nimoy, these days, is also a photographer specializing in large women (pictured to the left.) And my third & final complaint is that I wish, even when action sequences are completely artificial, that they could at least hold the camera still for a few seconds to get some grounding. Like when Kirk & Sulu are fighting off those goons &
Sulu is doing some nifty sword-play, the camera was shaking all over & the editor chopped it up into a complete mess. Even in the new Star Wars they let us see some light saber duels with some actual correography. Here ends my rant. It's a pretty good movie & the visuals are often beautiful. I even got the feeling they could make some pretty good sequels.

Here's the classic William Shatner recording of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds":

	William Shatner - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

And "Star Trekkin'" by The Firm:

	Firm - Star Trekkin