Mr. DuLac’s review published on Letterboxd:
I like this ship! You know, it's exciting!
-Scotty
I enjoy this film a great deal. It breathes new life into my favorite characters within the franchise and I honestly think how they went about setting up this prequel/reboot/re-imaging was a bit ingenious in it's simplicity. With that said however, J.J. Abrams has crafted a film that is more concerned with making Star Trek cool then actually making a great film.
The emotional impact of the film's opening is incredibly over the top with Kirk's father sacrificing himself to save the entire ship's crew at the exact same moment that Kirk himself is being born. The scene has all the subtlety of a Michael Bay film but with better acting at least. Following that we are treated to seeing a 12 year old James Kirk driving his step father's stolen 1965 Corvette Stingray wile Sabotage by the Beastie Boys blares out of the car speakers. Wanting to portray the character as a badass or troubled youth is one thing, but this just cries of desperation. That scene annoyed me ever since the first trailer was released.
I was fine with the film being more action oriented, but unfortunately is leans towards dumb action. There's several scenes that exist in the film with the sole purpose of creating an action sequence with the biggest culprit being the entire ice planet portion of the film. The reasons for most of the characters ending up on that planet are completely illogical to the plot and make the characters responsible for sending them there seem like complete idiots.
That covers everything I have a problem with. The story itself I like a great deal and think the time travel altering history was the perfect way to do an origin/reboot of the franchise. It frees up the use of the classic characters without having to stick to any sort of continuity. That and time travel has been used in almost every incarnation of Star Trek so to use it as the catalyst for it's newest form almost seems like destiny.
The cast is great with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto pulling off their own versions of the iconic characters. The standout for me however is Karl Urban as Bones. Every scene he's in puts a big goofy grin on my face and I love the line he gives that ends up as the origin of his nickname: "The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I got left is my bones." Of course you also have Zoe Saldana as Uhura causing the character to make a bigger impact in this one film then all the others combined. Eric Bana makes for a great sci-fi villain, but if we're being honest his character is one dimensional.
The film itself is the best looking Star Trek film up to that point by far from opening to end, but it also has the biggest budget then any of the other films by the same margin. The budget is actually $90 Million more then the last Trek film. With that kind of money, a mentally disabled monkey would have ended up making the best looking Trek film as well. The monkey would have probably put in less lens flare however.
J.J. Abrams gave us the most accessible Star Trek ever. While it's extremely fun, it's also too preoccupied with convincing you how cool Star Trek is instead of trying to convince you how great it can be.