Star Trek (2009)

Director:

J.J. Abrams

Writers (WGA):

Roberto Orci (written by) &
Alex Kurtzman (written by) ...

Release Date:

8 May 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The future begins.

Plot:

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.

Plot Keywords:

Captain | Vulcan | Starship | Alien | Planet

Awards:

1 win & 9 nominations

Cast

Chris Pine	...	Kirk
Zachary Quinto	...	Spock
Leonard Nimoy	...	Spock Prime
Eric Bana	...	Nero
Bruce Greenwood	...	Pike
Karl Urban	...	Bones
Zoe Saldana	...	Uhura (as Zoë Saldana)
Simon Pegg	...	Scotty
John Cho	...	Sulu
Anton Yelchin	...	Chekov
Ben Cross	...	Sarek
Winona Ryder	...	Amanda Grayson
Chris Hemsworth	...	George Kirk
Jennifer Morrison	...	Winona Kirk
Rachel Nichols	...	Gaila

Also Known As:

Christa & Christan's Big Adventure (USA) (fake working title)
Corporate HQ (USA) (fake working title)
Corporate Headquarters (USA) (fake working title)
Star Trek (IMAX DMR version) (Hong Kong: English title) (IMAX version)
Star Trek XI (USA) (working title)
Star Trek Zero (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: The Future Begins (Malaysia: English title)
Star Trek: The IMAX Experience (USA) (IMAX version)
The Ernest Castelhun Chronicles (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Blake Allen Project (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Paramount Project (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Walter Lace Project (USA) (fake working title)
Wet Paint (USA) (fake working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content.

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital | Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44847) | South Korea:12 | UK:12A | Netherlands:12 | Ireland:12A | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:PG | Norway:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Italy:T | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Brazil:12 | Sweden:11 | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Hong Kong:IIA | Argentina:Atp | Peru:PT | Iceland:10 | Germany:12 | South Africa:10V | New Zealand:M | Mexico:B | France:U

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Simon Pegg described Scotty as a Scot stereotype, but a positive one ("Scots are the first people to laugh at the fact that they drink and fight a bit"), and that Scotty comes from a long line of Scotsmen with technical expertise, like John Logie Baird and Alexander Graham Bell.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Characters are seen taking the turbo-lift DOWN to the engineering deck of the USS Kelvin. However the exterior shots clearly show the engineering hull is ABOVE the saucer section, where the bridge etc. is located.

Quotes:

Christopher Pike: I am relieved.

Movie Connections:

References Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Soundtrack:

Sabotage

What a production - cheesy bits forgiven!

There was no way that this reboot was going to avoid all references to either the original series of Star Trek or the other spin-off series - anyone going in to see this film had to accept that as a given. But any cheesy bits (of which there were relatively few) are blown away by the sheer beauty and bravado of this film.

I was a fairly big Trekkie in my youth, but in the last 10 years only really kept up with it by watching a few new episodes here and there and seeing the big screen outings (OK, I admit that I have all 10 films on special edition DVD - £47 was a bargain!) - but Abrams' vision here has me thinking the new franchise will be even better than what has come before.

What made this film special for me was not the story (remarkably good, bearing in mind that, like the first film in any new franchise, it's backbone was character development). What made this film for me was the....photography? Can you even call CGI photography? Well, either way, this film was a visual feast. The way that scale was conveyed was breath-taking. I'm not sure whether I read this somewhere or if I can take credit for it myself, but the difference came in the way that Abrams shoved aside the traditional Star Trek view of Enterprise as a lumbering naval ship and took a more Star Wars-esquire dogfight approach. This has set a high standard for a new era of Star Trek that I hope will spawn at least a couple more films.

It's not that I wasn't impressed with the character development, the acting, the script or the story - it's just that this film looked so gorgeous that I haven't been able to think of anything else since I saw it last night! But sufficed to say, this was overall an excellent feature. It might not quite deserve a 100% rating, but it's worth more than 90% in my eyes - so, by rounding up, it gets 10/10 from me! Final warning: see this film in the cinema. Do not wait for it to come out on DVD. It. Will. Not. Do. It. Justice.

JJ, you've won a fan!