Star Trek 2009

Just finished watching Star Trek 2009 (yeah, it appeared in cinemas half a year ago). Although I don't consider myself a Trekkie, I enjoyed this movie. I did not really start watching Star Trek until Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) Star Trek The New Generation (ST:TNG). I did not find the old James Kirk (William Shatner) series that interesting because, well, as an older series, the special effects were pretty lame back then.

Star Trek 2009 is actually a prelude to the original Star Trek series. But since it was done 2009, computer-generated imagery has greatly improved. The story started with the birth of James Tiberius Kirk amidst a battle. It also explained how he got his name -- "James" from his maternal grandfather and "Tiberius" from his paternal grandfather. It also showed the early years of all the other casts of the Enterprise bridge -- notably the young versions of Spock, Scotty, Chekhov, Sulu and Uhura.

Zachary Quinto played a great Spock. He does have some semblance with Leonard Nimoy (the original Spock), who was also in the film as the older/original Spock, now an Ambassador, who got sucked back through time because of a wormhole. Zachary is better known to sci-fi afficionados as Sylar, the baddie at the hit TV Series Heroes. I admit it still takes me some effort to see him as anyone other than playing the bad guy. And at first, his young Spock character was the antagonist of the young Kirk.

Eric Bana as the Romulan bad guy Nero was unrecognizable under the heavy make-up. Zoe Saldana as the young Uhura was pretty hot. The romantic twist between Uhura and Spock felt odd though as there were no hints in the "future" Star Trek of any relationship between them.

The film's action and special effects were pretty good. The plot is a bit far-fetched and I'm not too sold on the idea of the person meeting his own future self (ie. young Spock meeting old Spock at the ending). I guess I've always subscribed to the Back to the Future concept where ones present self cannot meet his future or past self without causing a major rift in the space-time continuum. :) But overall, I give the film a two thumbs up.