Review: Star Trek (2009)

I am a Star Wars geek. I take after my mom on that. My dad, on the other hand, is a Star Trek fan. Growing up, I was familiar with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" but I did not know much about it, The Original Series, or any of the original movies. I was interested when I first heard about the new "Star Trek" movie that was being directed by JJ Abrams, because I was a fan of "LOST". My dad was the one to watch it first, of course, on DVD in November 2009. He told me it was really good, so not long after I got it from Redbox. I was surprised at how good it was! I watched it again the next day, this time with the audio commentary. A few days later was Black Friday and I got the single-disc DVD for $5. I have watched the movie 3-4 times a year since then.

When JJ Abrams was announced to be the director of "Star Wars: Episode VII", it was no surprise, because "Star Trek" is a "Star Wars" movie in disguise. It opens with a space battle, features a cantina scene, a planet being destroyed, an ice planet, and ends with a medal ceremony. The VFX were done by Industrial Light and Magic, the sound design was done by Ben Burtt, the novelization was written by Alan Dean Foster. Sure, Abrams was revitalizing a dead franchise, but he was also making his "Star Wars" demo reel in the process.

I have heard people complain that the movie's antagonist, Nero, was a weak villain. I disagree! Within 50 seconds of appearing onscreen he murders Captain Robau in a fit of rage. I compared that to some of the all-time best movie baddies: In "The Avengers" it takes Loki 25 seconds after appearing to start killing people; In "Star Wars" it takes a minute and a half between Darth Vader boarding the Tantive IV and choking Captain Antilles to death; And in "The Dark Knight" the Joker is shown onscreen two and a half minutes before he shoots the bank manager.

What Nero did that the other villains I mentioned did not was destroy a planet and kill six billion Vulcans. Darth Vader is considered one of the best movie villains but he stood by and let Governor Tarkin give the command to destroy Alderaan. Nero committed genocide, and was going to destroy Earth next, followed by every other Federation planet. It is unknown just how many people Nero was willing to murder in order to get his revenge on the Federation.

The casting is great, the story is great, the music is great. I give "Star Trek" a 10/10 for being the best "Star Wars" movie pretending to be a "Star Trek" film.