Star Trek

Colleen's Thoughts:
You don’t need to be anywhere close to a Trekie to enjoy the new Star Trek movie that came out this spring. The plot of this Star Trek is that all the members of the original Start Trek show are just being recruited into Star Fleet. You get a glimpse at their pasts and learn how they became involved in the exploration of the final frontier. The word “entertaining” best describes this film. The dialogue isn’t fantastic and often cheesy and Chris Pine, who plays Kirk, does get on my nerves, but I found myself smiling throughout the film. The actor playing Spock, Zachary Quinto, did a great job with the character and it was fun to see the original Spock, Leonard Nimroy, in the movie. Also, Simon Pegg went all out with the few scenes he was in. (Unfortunately for Pegg he was sharing his scenes with weird “e-wok-esque/jar jar binks” creatures which were just silly). I don’t think it will make a strong showing at the Dolphins this year, but all in all it was a fun film. Star Trek is a good movie to lift your spirits and distract you from school or work.

Drew's Thoughts:
I'd describe my Trekkie status as not disliking Star Trek but not necessarily liking it either. It always seemed like an interesting premise/concept but the execution of the various TV series and movies left much to be desired in my opinion. Thus, my reaction to the news of J.J. Abrams's reboot of the series was pretty apathetic. Based on Colleen's review though, I figured it would be worth watching.
J.J. Abrams doesn't use much subtlety in telling the story but he manages to hit all the proper points to excite and engage the audience. Though the plot and dialogue are laden with cliches, the film manages not to get bogged down in them.
By far the worst element at work was the acting, the worst offender being Karl Urban as the doctor. He moves through every scene with his brow permanently furrowed and an unchanging scowl plastered across his face. Every word he speaks is steeped in a hilariously misguided "cynical" tone. Bogart he most definitely is not. Urban's performance had the makings of a great, campy performance if, you know, he actually realized how bad he was. Unfortunately, the best performance (Simon Pegg as Scotty) gets a scant amount of screen time.
The best element is the set design, which opts for a minimal amount of CGI. Obviously there's a fair amount of CGI in the film but it seems that the design department was consciously looking to the past, creating something more akin to Alien than the new Avatar-style bullshit.
Star Trek is not one the year's best films and though it's no Dark Knight, it's probably the best popcorn movie you'll get this year.

Joe's Thoughts:
I watched the first half of this movie, and don't have any immediate plans for watching the second half.