Review: Star Trek (2009)

Title: Star Trek
Year: 2009
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Karl Urban, John Cho
Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
MPAA: PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content
Kids-In-Mind.com: 5.6.4
My Rating: 8.4
Up or Down: Thumb Up
IMDb Rating: 8.4 (Top 250: #103)

Synopsis: George Kirk, acting captain of the starship USS Kelvin, is attacked by Emperor Nero of Romulus while trying to save a planet supposedly being hit by a lightning storm as his wife gives birth to their child. He evacuates the ship and pilots it on a collision course to save the evacuated. He dies seconds after his son, James Kirk, is born. 25 years later, the younger Kirk (Pine) is recruited by Christopher Pike, captain of the new ship the USS Enterprise. He then meets Dr. Leonard McCoy (Urban) and befriends him. While training for duty, he cheats on an exam and is suspended from active duty. At that time, word is received that the planet Vulcan is being hit by a lightning storm and the fleet moves in. McCoy sneaks the ambitious Kirk on board, where Pike is the captain and Spock (Quinto), a half-Vulcan, half-human comrade is first assistant. Spock is highly intelligent and relies solely on logic rather than feeling to make his decisions. Kirk notices the similarity between this situation and the one that killed his father and moves in to help. Despite his being illegally on the ship, his advice is heralded and it is found that the same Emperor Nero trying to destroy Vulcan. Kirk and Hikaru Sulu (Cho) try to save Vulcan while Spock rushes to evacuate the planet and Pike boards Nero's ship for peace talks. They fail to save Vulcan, but Spock rescues all his family except his mother. Pike is taken prisoner aboard Nero's ship and Spock becomes captain. Nero then heads to destroy Earth. Kirk wants to pursue, but Spock feels it'd be too dangerous and kicks Kirk off the ship. He is marooned on Delta Vega and meets Spock from the future (Nimoy), who conveys to Kirk that he'd been on a mission, 154 years in the future, to destroy Romulus. After doing so, Nero pursued him, but their ships both fell into the black hole created by the destruction of Romulus. This brought them into the past, where Nero was now trying to destroy the United Federation of Planets, which had ordered Spock to destroy Romulus. He asks Kirk to board the Enterprise once again and force the original Spock from duty by emotionally compromising him by highlighting the destruction of Vulcan. He does this and takes command of the Enterprise as captain, directing the ship toward Earth. They are able to kill Nero and destroy his ship using the red matter used to destroy Romulus and Vulcan, which creates a black hole. They are narrowly able to escape from the black hole. Kirk is promoted and made permanent captain of the Enterprise, with Spock as first assistant.

My Take: This was a cool show. The screenwriting was subpar, but the plot and the action were really neat. It's not a top ten by any means, but I really liked it. There's not much to say other than that it was a cool show with a decent plot. Pine and Quinto did well as the film's leads and the action was great. The screenwriting, once again, could've been better, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. A side note: I rarely see films in theaters, but I watched this at my local dollar theater.

Concerning the rating: The 8.4 puts it in a tie for 24th with seven other films out of 152 rated.

In queue: The Wrestler (2008), Pulp Fiction (1994), Airplane! (1980)

This film was suggested by EVERYONE!

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