I wouldn’t call myself a Trekkie exactly, but at one stage I was quite a fan of all things Star Trek. Not constume wearing obsessive, but quite a fan. Read a lot of the books, watched most of the series, all the movies. So I’d been quite keen to see the new Star Trek movie, with a little insiders knowledge, but quite a few years now since my real Trek fan days.
Today was an actual day off, arranged a couple of weeks ago to make up for my extra work over the end of April for the new website at work. We had a baby medicine appointment for Sallie in the morning, an ultrasound just to check on everything. And it seemed all normal: he’s smaller than either Will or Alex were at the time, but everything looks good. Sallie still secretly hopes for a girl, looking at the lower weight and hoping… is unlikely though 🙂
After that we had a free day though. Good thing, since I still don’t feel brilliant, but not having to get out of the house at 8am helped a lot. After the doctors, we headed to Westpoint for a light lunch, then I finally picked up my NAS network storage unit that I’d wanted for a while (the last of the stimulus money!), then we got in just in time for the movie.
And a damn enjoyable movie it was too. After a hell of an action packed and emotionable opening scene, where everything is ramped up to 11 in intensity, we then got the leisurely introduction of all the new versions of the classic old Star Trek characters. And that was done remarkably well, with enough traits to find them familiar, but also new points that really gave them a smart updating. Things like Kirk’s wilder than usual streak, or Uhura’s genius smarts (not to mention her romance with Spock!) were unexpected, but made perfect sense. McCoy (Karl Urban) had all the best lines early, and while being new at the same time, he conveyed the classic essence of the character remarkably well.
Sallie had never been interested much in Star Trek before, but she was enjoying every moment of the movie. Her highlight came of course when Scotty (Simon Pegg) was introduced quite a distance into the story, and he got the best lines and scenes later on. There’s a lot of humour in Star Trek, and that didn’t get in the way, or overpower the serious story — it was a great help.
But of course, it’s primarily a story about Kirk and Spock. And they do that really well — Zach Quinto is remarkably like Nimoy, and Chris Pine, while not as much spitting image of Shatner, still conveys that cocky charm very successfully.
Very fun movie, good even for non-fans. I give it high marks.