KJ's Movie Reviews!

Star Trek: The New One.
I have to confess, I did NOT want to like this movie. I resisted the urge to outwardly “pooh-pooh” this film, but secretly I was pretty much dead set on the idea that it would just be a tart-y little, unimaginative pander to neo-nerds.

I’m glad to say that I left the theater with a smile on my face, and that I really enjoyed the movie. The leads all worked hard to portray the characters correctly (except that horrible kid at the beginning but let’s just not even talk about that sequence, okay?) Everything was handled well, good plot, lots of ‘splo-jins, lots of witty banter… a great time. Nothing I think I want to own, but I really enjoyed it.

I won’t spoil anything for the three of you out there who haven’t seen this yet, so I won’t go into the really personal stuff that got under my skin. Most of my complaints are jealously lodged in the deep resentment I still hold against the three “new” Star Wars movies and those complaints don’t really pertain to the Star Trek storyline at all.

One complaint I will share is about the love story in there that was just… it was utterly Out. Of. Nowhere. It was handled well though, and ultimately it worked. I really enjoyed the portrayal of each of these leads as young hardasses and couldn’t escape the observation that even though Kirk may have been a badass townie, he was brilliant only at starting fights and getting his butt subsequently handed to him. He was, all told, a very bad fighter. I like that. Probably because his hubris and bravado have always irritated me.

I liked Bones and Scotty. Their characters stole the show and made me unexpectedly sad that “real Scotty” would never get to see how cool his character’s youth was.

It was a very good experience, a fun ride, and a legitimate-enough storyline to finally persuade me to say that I liked the movie. There ya go. I didn’t want to like it, I liked it.

Go see it and prosper and whatever.