Rent Star Trek (2009)

space, the final frontier.. - Star Trek review by CP Customer

and I hope not the final outing for this incarnation of the star trek franchise. Visually stunning, with space battles and action sequences that rival those of any of the previous movies or indeed surpass them, and a cracking audio soundtrack and sound effects that will make your ears ring!

On the whole good (if not great performances) and I do wish we would have seen more of Scotty as played by Simon Pegg. Spot the subtle Kirk impression by the lead actor as he copies gestures etc etc of Shatner. It's subtle and you may miss them! I reckon this is the reboot that the series needed and cannot wait for the sequel.

Oh and may I say best performance has to be Zachary Quinto as Spock, superb!

A let-down - Star Trek review by Mehitabel

I was disappointed by this movie. We were promised a witty tale of the early years of the Star Trek characters and I was expecting something a bit different from the usual inter-galactic gun-firing. Instead, it was more of the same, but with younger leads. Had we seen more of Kirk & Co actually being cadets at Star Fleet Academy, watching their personalities, strengths and weaknesses develop -- which is the film I was expecting -- it would have held my interest, especially with a good script. This didn't.

Too much is asked of our suspension of disbelief, too. While I could cope with most of the confusions of time travel, the idea that Spock could go back in time and have a mind-blowingly banal conversation with his younger self, was absurd. I was also distracted throughout by the ease with which an academy cadet was able to assume command of not just any old ship, but the Enterprise, with not a single voice raised in dissent. But then, I found Chris Pine's whole authority-flaunting swaggering maverick schtick tiresome after about 5 minutes. I did like Zachary Quinto's quiet Spock, though, and could have wished Simon Pegg as Scottie, with his rather too good accent, could have made an earlier appearance.

So all in all, if you like watching spaceships zip around firing at each other, and young men posturing, you might enjoy this. But if you were hoping for an original, well-written movie which would shed light on our favourite tight-jerseyed beamers-up, don't bother.

Great SciFi Adventure - A Worthy Reboot - Star Trek review by GI

For anyone who grew up with Star Trek the original TV series and the later films that started in 1979 it was with some excitement and trepidation that a new film was in production. Director J.J. Abrams had a huge task to perform in how to approach this for a new modern audience. The result is actually quite clever and managed to create a narrative that introduced Star Trek to people that may have had no or at least a sketchy prior knowledge of the franchise and also to launch a storyline that could be the source for a new series of films: what is now commonly called a reboot. In one way this is a prequel to everything that's gone before and indeed there had been plans to have a film about the characters in their younger days many years ago. This film introduces us to a future world of Starfleet, with the familiar characters of Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) and McCoy (Karl Urban) as their younger selves joining the USS Enterprise. The plot involves a vengeful alien, Nero, played with relish by Eric Bana, arriving from the future to destroy his enemies including humanity. His arrival effectively alters the future allowing for a new set of adventures. The story is complicated but very well thought out and repeated viewings reveal more detail. The film is a marvellous science fiction adventure for a new age. Yes it has its detractors but much of the criticism is from purist and overly picky fans because this is sci-fi cinema at its most spectacular and some of the action set pieces and spacecraft scenes are unbelievably brilliant. The cameo of Leonard Nimoy and a support cast of Simon Pegg as Scotty, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Hemsworth and Winona Ryder make this a film to satisfy fans and those new to the Star Trek universe.