Star Trek (2009)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

J.J. Abrams

Writers (WGA):

Roberto Orci (written by) &
Alex Kurtzman (written by) ...

Release Date:

8 May 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The future begins.

Plot:

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.

Plot Keywords:

Vulcan | Birth | Alien | Oral Exam | Number 35

Awards:

1 win & 8 nominations

Cast

Chris Pine	...	James T. Kirk
Zachary Quinto	...	Spock
Leonard Nimoy	...	Spock Prime
Eric Bana	...	Nero
Bruce Greenwood	...	Capt. Christopher Pike
Karl Urban	...	Bones
Zoe Saldana	...	Nyota Uhura (as Zoë Saldana)
Simon Pegg	...	Montgomery Scott
John Cho	...	Lt. Hikaru Sulu
Anton Yelchin	...	Pavel Chekov
Ben Cross	...	Sarek
Winona Ryder	...	Amanda Grayson
Chris Hemsworth	...	George Kirk
Jennifer Morrison	...	Winona Kirk
Rachel Nichols	...	Gaila

Also Known As:

Christa & Christan's Big Adventure (USA) (fake working title)
Corporate HQ (USA) (fake working title)
Corporate Headquarters (USA) (fake working title)
Star Trek (IMAX DMR version) (Hong Kong: English title) (IMAX version)
Star Trek XI (USA) (working title)
Star Trek Zero (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: The Future Begins (Malaysia: English title)
Star Trek: The IMAX Experience (USA) (IMAX version)
The Ernest Castelhun Chronicles (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Blake Allen Project (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Paramount Project (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Walter Lace Project (USA) (fake working title)
Wet Paint (USA) (fake working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content.

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital | Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44847) | South Korea:12 | UK:12A | Netherlands:12 | Ireland:12A | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:PG | Norway:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Italy:T | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Brazil:12 | Sweden:11 | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Hong Kong:IIA | Argentina:Atp | Peru:PT | Iceland:10 | Germany:12 | South Africa:10V | New Zealand:M | Mexico:B | France:U

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie-Mellon Computer Science professor (and "Star Trek" fan) who gained widespread fame as the author of a "Last Lecture" in which he discussed living the life of his dreams in the face of terminal pancreatic cancer, was invited by J.J. Abrams to appear as an extra in this film. Pausch wrote in his blog about the experience, "I got a custom-made Star Trek uniform and my own station on the bridge, where I had lots of buttons and controls. I even got a LINE!!!!" Pausch died on July 25, 2008.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During the battle between the USS Kelvin and the Narada, the engineer of the Kelvin reports that the weapons are offline, yet in the next barrage of torpedoes from the Romulan vessel, the Kelvin's phasers are seen firing again. However, the phasers in this scene target only the torpedoes, indicating that they are likely part of a point-defense system, which is only designed to target incoming projectiles. Therefore, the weapons systems could still be offline, but defensive systems could still be operational.

Quotes:

Leonard 'Bones' McCoy: Dammit, man! I'm a doctor, not a physicist!

Movie Connections:

References "Star Trek: Journey to Babel (#2.10)" (1967)

Soundtrack:

Sabotage

What a production - cheesy bits forgiven!

There was no way that this reboot was going to avoid all references to either the original series of Star Trek or the other spin-off series - anyone going in to see this film had to accept that as a given. But any cheesy bits (of which there were relatively few) are blown away by the sheer beauty and bravado of this film.

I was a fairly big Trekkie in my youth, but in the last 10 years only really kept up with it by watching a few new episodes here and there and seeing the big screen outings (OK, I admit that I have all 10 films on special edition DVD - £47 was a bargain!) - but Abrams' vision here has me thinking the new franchise will be even better than what has come before.

What made this film special for me was not the story (remarkably good, bearing in mind that, like the first film in any new franchise, it's backbone was character development). What made this film for me was the....photography? Can you even call CGI photography? Well, either way, this film was a visual feast. The way that scale was conveyed was breath-taking. I'm not sure whether I read this somewhere or if I can take credit for it myself, but the difference came in the way that Abrams shoved aside the traditional Star Trek view of Enterprise as a lumbering naval ship and took a more Star Wars-esquire dogfight approach. This has set a high standard for a new era of Star Trek that I hope will spawn at least a couple more films.

It's not that I wasn't impressed with the character development, the acting, the script or the story - it's just that this film looked so gorgeous that I haven't been able to think of anything else since I saw it last night! But sufficed to say, this was overall an excellent feature. It might not quite deserve a 100% rating, but it's worth more than 90% in my eyes - so, by rounding up, it gets 10/10 from me! Final warning: see this film in the cinema. Do not wait for it to come out on DVD. It. Will. Not. Do. It. Justice.

JJ, you've won a fan!