This review will not contain any spoilers.
So, last night I decided that I really wanted to go and see Star Trek. If we weren’t visiting Sue’s parents in York I would have been going with Jamie and Lou tonight at the very nice VUE in Leeds. There’s a VUE in York (it used to be a Warner Bros cinema) so I decided that I really wanted to go. I fancied a quiet seating so set my sights on the 11:30 showing. Sue really didn’t like this idea, I was all set for going on my own – she really wanted to come with me so we decided on the 9:30 showing instead which was on a smaller screen.
The cinema itself was fairly poor, past the fairly grand lobby we walked through the door to screen 6 which might well have been a wormhole to 1989 – terrible seats, terrible layout and a really strange cup holder on the back of the seat in front of you that sat at a 45 degree angle. The armrests were wooden!!
The cinema was nowhere near half full – there were maybe 30 people in there, there was a showing at 8:30 so a lot of people would have been in for that, it was a bigger screen too. The floor was lino and was sloped downwards towards the front of the auditorium, a couple that had plonked themselves on the end of our row accidently dropped the 1l cup of coke on the floor, it rapidly spread to the underside of the seats in front and people were jumping up moving seats all over the place. Pre show entertainment ftw!
Thankfully, once the droll of adverts had finished and we got into the trailers (Drag me to hell, Harry Potter, Terminator Salvation) I soon forgot about the seats and the surroundings. Once the film started, even more so.
I’d heard some very good things about the film before I went in – pre release reviews and comments on twitter from people like Jonathan Ross had all been positive. It was hyped up to the max, J.J Abrams had done a fantastic job, they said.
The biggest problem with a film being hyped like this is that you go into the cinema with heightened expectations – if the film isn’t fantastic, it can be very disappointing. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case at all.
The pace from the outset is fast and exciting, the musical score seemed to be a little lacking in places but it wasn’t really noticable – I’ll pick that up more on the next viewing.
Weighing in at just over 2 hours in length it was one of those films where you really don’t feel the time at all – I knew I’d been watching it for an hour or so, I was willing it to carry on forever more – it was that good I could have watched a 3/4 hour epic. I’m not sure Sue would agree with me, we’re lucky if she can make it through a 2 hour film without a trip to the loo!
The cast worked really well. Chris Pine didn’t try to emulate Shatner, which is good – he tried to concentrate on the more rebellious and youthful side – it worked well and he made a good leaading man. Zachary Quinto played Spock really well – never once did I think “Oh – there’s Sylar”. Considering we’ve seen him on our television screens in that role for 4+ years this was no mean feat.
The stealer of the show for me is a toss up between Karl Urban playing Dr. “Bones” McCoy and Simon Pegg playing Scotty. Urban has all of the mannerisms that Deforrest Kelly did so well – I was really impressed. Pegg makes a believable Scotsman and you can really see elements of the original cast there.
The fact that I spent nearly all of the 2 hours 7 minutes with a giant grin on my face tells you I enjoyed it – it had me giggling in parts. There were also quite a few emotional scenes which nearly had me in tears.
To someone that has always considered himself more Jedi than Trekkie it was impressive – I never really got into the Original Series, the Next Generation was more my game. I liked the Star Trek 1-6 films, but original series wise I wasn’t too interested – I might have to pick up series 1 when it hits blu ray.
I spent some time whilst the credits were rolling thinking to myself as to whether or not this was the best film I’d ever seen. The Dark Knight last year held that mantle as far as I was concerned, after seeing Star Trek I think we definately have a new contender. The plot, flow, humour, actions, effects and cast are flawless. I can’t wait for a sequel.
Go and see it. Now.
Kirk Out.
