REVIEW: Star Trek (live action movie)

Star Trek is a 2009 science fiction movie, essentially a reboot of the original series. I bought my copy brand new.

I don't go into too many details, but the latter half of my review technically includes spoilers.

Review:

James T. Kirk is just about to be born when the Federation starship USS Kelvin is suddenly attacked by a Romulan ship. As the ship's acting captain, Kirk's father sacrifices his own life to give more people a chance to evacuate. 

Years later, Kirk is a roguish Starfleet cadet who finds himself at odds with a young Spock. When the Romulan ship that killed Kirk's father suddenly reappears, Kirk and Spock must learn to work together in order to keep it from destroying everything they love.

Or at least that's as much as I can say without going into too many spoilers. There's not actually a whole lot to the story.

I'll start off by saying that, although I was a fan of Star Trek: Enterprise, Voyager, and some of movies based on the original series, I was never actually much of a fan of the original series. I'd watched a few episodes (I distinctly remember one in which the alien beast was clearly footage of a domestic cat that was still wearing its collar), but it never really grew on me. Which is to say that I may have a different perspective on this movie than a diehard fan of the original series.

This movie felt like a character cameo vehicle, and that's even without all the actor cameos that were originally planned, according to the Wikipedia article for the movie. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed recognizing the younger versions of all the original series characters, although the one I thought was most effectively cast was Zachary Quinto as Spock. Chris Pine was good as Kirk, but he was better when he shared the screen with Quinto's Spock.

The story was...okay, if a tad long. This was my second time watching the movie (first was in the theater), and I was left with several questions. I initially assumed that the Romulans had somehow managed to jump forward in time a little more, to catch up with Spock, but this time around I noted the dialogue stating that they'd waited 25 years for Spock to arrive. Where did they wait? Why did no one find or notice them? Also, how did average Romulan miners figure out how to use red matter? And what even is red matter? No one ever asked that question, not even Kirk, who should have been as clueless as me.

All in all, this was okay, but it did leave a somewhat sour taste that the action was more memorable than the destruction of an entire alien homeworld. Does the next movie even bring that up? I can't remember, but I have a feeling it didn't get the time and emotional weight that something that horrible and enormous should have.

Extras:

A gag reel that wasn't particularly funny, a commentary I didn't listen to, and a "making of" featurette that had some interesting info.