My 2 cents on Star Trek

...and 2 cents of criticism is all I should really get here as I'm not a Trekker, nor am I a Trekkie, nor am I a Star Trek fanboy. When I was growing up in the mid-60's, it seemed like kids either liked Star Trek or Lost in Space, and I was a Lost in Space fan, I think mostly because 1) it was about a family in outer space and I was part of a family in suburbia, and 2) one of the characters was a kid almost exactly my age, played by Billy Mumy, and I identified strongly with him. (I think I probably had a crush on him, too, but I wouldn't have processed it as such at the tender age of 11--those kinds of thoughts would have to wait another couple of years.)

While I'm not a Trek fan, I have seen many episodes of the original show, the Next Generation show, and 4 of the feature films in the series, so I do have some sense of what's going on in the Star Trek world. This "reboot," as it's being called, is essentially what would be called in comic books an origin story, telling how the original crew of the Enterprise got together. I won't rehash the plot at all except to say that the background stories for Kirk and Spock struck me as more complex than they needed to be, and that they break the show's backstory continuity (explaining these fissures away by relying on the old space/time continuum-rupture trick). The moviemaking was rather dismal, relying on the usual tricks of today's sf/action movies, such as a camera set to constant jitter, monsters with gaping jaws, and dark, dank interiors--though I do give J.J. Abrams credit for sticking with the same basic set and costumes as the original TV show when we're on board the Enterprise.

The acting is surprisingly good. Zachary Quinto is getting the most attention for his Spock impersonation, and he is indeed almost eerily like Nimoy's Spock--too young to be as commanding as Nimoy was, but then again the character is still young in this film. Chris Pine isn't as lucky with Kirk--I never really found myself thinking, yeah, this is James T. Kirk--but instead he more or less re-invents the role and does a fine job as a dangerously cocky young space cadet. (It doesn't hurt that Pine is fine eye candy; I may have to get the DVD just to freeze-frame the quickie shot early in the film of Pine in his tighty-whities). The rest of the crew are OK, though casting Simon Pegg as Scotty and John Cho as Sulu seems more like stunt casting than natural fits. Eric Bana is wasted as the nondescript villain, though Bruce Greenwood does a nice job as Captain Pike, who winds up out of commission for the bulk of the film. It was nice to see Leonard Nimoy as the older Spock, though he looks and sounds a bit unhealthy, which made me sad. Aside from the ridiculous camerawork, I have few complaints about getting dragged by my Trek-fan partner to see the movie during opening weekend. And I would not be sorry to see Pine and Quinto team up again.