Look out for the green lady, she’s class!
When I rented the new Star Trek DVD I wasn’t massively fussed about seeing it, but I knew that it had both Sylar from Heroes and Simon Pegg from Spaced in it, so I thought it was worth a chance. However, it turns out that it wasn’t all that much.
It’s not that it was a massive disappointment, it’s just that it wasn’t particularly good.
It’s main problems include bad dialogue, poor fight scenes, a ropey storyline (seemingly taken from the cutting room floor of Top Gun) and bad acting. However, by far the worst aspect of the film is that it’s padded out with a stars and stripes style war message that implies that it is only thanks to the good old fashioned U.S.A attack first ask questions later mentality that the Earth is saved.
The film’s redeeming features include a laughable green “alien hottie” wearing nothing but her bra and pants, the filthy Martian flirt; a lengthy cameo from Leonard Nimoy as the elder Spock, along with Zachary Quinto (A.K.A. Sylar from Heroes) as the younger Spock. Eric Bana puts on a convincing performance in the bad guy role of Nero, but Simon’s Pegg’s Scotty is hardly worth mentioning, especially his poor attempt at the accent (maybe it’s a role he’ll grow into if there are sequels). There’s a few decent CGI moments throughout the film, but the ice planet’s animals are definitely not one of them.
All in all, the new Star Trek is bearable, but never reaches entertaining, which is surprising seeing as they’d roped in J.J. Abrams of Lost fame to be the director. Scaling back the overcooked Americana would have been a good start.
Star Trek (2009) DVD review: 2.5/5
