Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Star Trek, Second Impressions


"I never wanted to watch 'Star Trek' because I always felt alienated from 'Star Trek.' I always felt it was not my world. It was the fans' world. The fans had built this kind of impenetrable wall around their beloved series," Pine said. "J.J.'s come in and broken that wall down a little bit, and I'm hopeful 'Star Trek' will be open to a whole new generation of fans. Different types of people who never felt they would be fans."

That quote from Chris Pine sums up my thoughts on the franchise as a whole quite well. I watched the movie yet again last night (with a possible viewing again tonight), and it truly was better the second time around. I got to notice a bunch of smaller things that I missed the first time around.

Take, for example, the symbolic nature of the Corvette scene. Here we have young James Kirk driving a classic 'Vette at about a million miles per hour. He gets chased by a cop (on a hoverbike that I would very much like to ride) and ends up driving the 'Vette right off a cliff (you saw this scene in the trailer #2). We are left with the young Kirk brushing himself off - "My name is James Tiberius Kirk!"

It's Abrams' first way of saying "out with the classic, in with the new, younger Trek."

There's so much to appreciate about the movie the second time around. My second time going to a movie is usually the nit-pick viewing. That's why I usually won't see movies more than once in a short span of time. But all I noticed the second time were the little nuances about the way the actors played their roles that made them so damn good. Watching the confrontation between Spock and Kirk the second time was just so intense - the acting was flawless, and I was left, yet again, marvelling at the chemistry Pine and Quinto have together on screen. 



I was also highly entertained by watching Simon Pegg in the background doing his crazy and funny things. The movie, as a whole, is very humorous. There's great wit peppered throughout the script, and the actors' delivery just adds to my enjoyment. But there's just something extra special about Pegg's humor in the movie. He kicks up the humor to a new level, and the movie is better for it.

Anyway, I once again endorse everybody seeing this movie. It's truly a treat, and it does something that so few movies can actually do. Last year I talked about how The Dark Knight was something more than a movie, it was art. This year I can say the same for Star Trek. The movie is beautiful - its beauty lies in how all the facets, each done so well, come together to form this entertaining and refreshing, astonishingly wonderful movie. 

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