Star Trek (2009) Review

          This contemporary telling of the classic franchise as told by J.J. Abrams is a prequel story to the classic Star Trek tales. James T. Kirk, a member of Starfleet tries to live up to his father's legacy, but he finds it hard to do with Commander Spock forcing him to play by the rules. When time-traveling Romulan tries to destroy the federation one planet at a time, Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise must work together to stop Romulan, and save their captain.
          This movie does a great job at establishing and developing these characters. There is no exposition when it comes to getting to know these characters. When you first see them you know who they are and what they are like. That makes it so you will feel for these characters all throughout the movie. The movie made me feel like I have known these characters for a long time. They get you so invested, so quickly, and that leads to having a great journey. Now, a big help to this are the performances. Especially Chris Pine who played Kirk. He embodies this character, he understands who this character is. He didn't play it as a carbon copy of Shatner's original portrayal, he made it his own while keeping the core of Kirk the same.
          Not every character was well polished. The villain Romulan played by Eric Banna was very one note. When I first saw him I was enjoying his presence on screen. But as the movie went on, I was getting tired of him. He was doing the same thing over, and over again. He never changed and that lead to a bigger problem. If you don't see the villain as a serious threat, you really have no reason to cheer for the heroes. When our heroes first encounter Romulan, he immediately came across as a low level threat. So during the movie when they were trying to do something to overcome Romulan, you automatically knew that they were going to win. If a movie doesn't have dramatic tension, it is very easy to loose interest in it. I was very close to loosing interest in this movie.
          I appreciate the simplicity of this movie. It's a movie that depends on it's characters. It doesn't loose its self in trying to make it a big, spectacular, epic. A lot of movies now depend on their action set pieces rather than their story and characters. This movie did a great job at finding the perfect balance between the story, the characters, and the action. Apart from the story that has to do with Romulan, this is a great watch. It is a great movie. I'm going to give Star Trek a 3.5/5