Let me preface this by saying I am not a trekkie. I loved the old series, but never got into the Next Generation and all that. When I heard about the new Star Trek, I wasn’t really excited about seeing other people play the traditional characters. I was going more for my four year old than I was myself. But, when I left the theater, I found myself pleasantly surprised with the film!
This film takes us back, way back. In fact, we see Kirk make the decision to join the Federation’s StarFleet and how he and Bones McCoy became friends. We also find out that Kirk’s dad George died warding off a Romulan ship – while Kirk’s mom Winona was giving birth to him. Speaking of Winona, blink and you may miss a cameo by Winona Ryder as Spock’s mother Amanda. And, I also learned that at one point, Spock and Kirk were once more adversaries than friends. Well, maybe other diehard trekkies already knew all that, but I didn’t.
After some interesting background stories, the main storyline focuses on a new threat by a Romulan named Nero, intent on revenge for the destruction of his planet. In an interesting twist, we see Kirk meet older Spock, played by Leonard Nemoy. Eventually, young Spock and old Spock meet in a surreal passing of the torch moment by Leonard Nemoy and Zachary Quinto. Don’t look for William Shatner, however. He is not in the new flick.
One thing I did enjoy about the new film is that the new actors portray the original characters in a very believable way. I loved the way Chris Pine not only portrayed Kirk, but also threw in a bit of William Shatner’s own personality. And Zachary Quinto, well, he was just born to play Spock.
Was the film family friendly? Well, I took my four year old and he loved it. Of course, there is some mild violence. I think Kirk gets involved in a bar fight early on and he and Spock scuffle at one point. Naturally, there are planets imploding and fighting among the starships, but it was really nothing that concerned me. Star Trek has always seemed to have a good vs. evil with good winning philosophy and I think that is a healthy one for children. I also don’t remember any vulgar language. As for sexual content, there is an early scene where Kirk is in bed with a fellow academy member, but it wasn’t particularly graphic and didn’t last long. However, the movie is rated PG-13 due to the violence and sexual content.
Overall, I really enjoyed Star Trek, so much so that we went to see it a second time when my husband came home from deployment. And, amazingly enough, my son watched the entire film the second time too. If you have a preschooler, you know how astonishing that actually is!
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