Movie Review

Another movie review and boy, it was great!

Space - the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship, Enterprise.

Yes, we went to see the newest innovation of prequels, Star Trek. I went with the knowledge of having seen the reruns of the sixties series when I was growing up. My son went with absolutely no knowledge of the previous life this series lived.

We both loved most every minute of it.

Some people may be bored with the lack of non-stop action and instead loads of character development. Personally, I prefer good characterization and development over nothing more than two hours of death and destruction any day. Of course, it helps to have action and you get that and then some at the beginning and end with appropriately placed heart-pounding throughout.

I've never seen the guy before in my life, but the actor portraying George Kirk (father of James Tiberius Kirk) had some of the most anguished facial expressions in his short screen stint here, and it was all perfectly played.

Most of the actors and actresses chosen to portray the original characters got it so very spot-on in how they portrayed these immortal members of the USS Enterprise. Only one kinda got on my nerves a little bit, but the rest were wonderful. The guy playing Jim Kirk did an excellent job (but the poor guy sure looks goofy when he runs), but the one I was most impressed with was the actor chosen to play Spock as a young adult (the little Spock was really good too).

Even though he was not supposed to show emotion (and didn't really), he did such an incredible job playing no emotion on his face and yet having deep emotion etched in his eyes. It's so subtle and yet it is there, particularly in one scene - I'll leave you to figure out which. Sure hope we have the chance to see this actor in more good scripts coming down the line.

Loved the introduction to Scotty and the humor and energy he revved into his scenes. Bones just cracked me up, particularly his abuse on Kirk with those multiple injections. Hilarious!

Though I was shocked when my son figured out who he was before I did. Didn't think there was any way he was right, but I just couldn't be 100% certain. So we looked it up when we got home.

Yup - my son was right. The guy playing Dr. McCoy (aka Bones) was the same guy who played Eomer of Rohan from the Lord of the Rings series - Two Towers and Return of the King. Couldn't believe it!

Though I'm not going to give the plot away to those who mysteriously haven't seen it, I will say that this is a great rendition and recharge to the Star Trek series for both young and old. For parents, there is very little objectionable even though the previews have a few moments that suggest otherwise.

There's no blood except running out of Kirk's nose, very few curse words, some drinking, fighting and violence along the lines of Star Wars, and the one scene where a couple is in their underwear getting ready to make out, however the scene is cut short and ends up being rather funny. Everything stays covered, probably more so than what you'd see out on the beach these days.

Overall it is a wonderfully positive and uplifting movie that has good messages, something rare in today's culture. Highly recommended!