I hear people are hating on Netlix these days. Not me because they sent me a movie (way down on my list) that I had forgotten about and it was a gem!
I remember when I finished my first yoga class at the ATMA Center. I walked out with the most amazing feeling of peacefulness and awareness. I said, “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me about THIS!”
This is how I felt watching the movie, Star Trek (2009). I absolutely LOVED it. Why didn’t anyone tell me!!! At first I thought it would be like all of those others in the series (of which I didn’t see many). It wasn’t. It truly paid tribute to the original TV series in a cool, updated way.
While watching the credits at the end, I saw that it is a J.J. Abrams film. This explained everything. There simply was not one mis-step (IMO). At first I thought it a little puzzling when Scotty can beam people into another ship in outer space, but they have to physically parachute to land on a platform in the air from which the Romulans are drilling a hole to the Earth’s core. Well, there had to be a good reason because JJ just gets it all right. Oh wait, wait – the transporting mechansim was blocked.
There was a nice little touch of a Tribble sitting on Scotty’s desk and quietly cooing! Wow! Very cool!
Anyway, the casting was perfect. Chris Pine who play James T. Kirk is just on the money – all of the hero archetype is present – humorous, arrogant, decisive. The guy who plays Spock (young version) is also simply great. And McCoy and Uhura and Scotty…
Key to the story, of course, the relationship growing between Spock and Kirk. I found the scenes with the old Spock to be sweet and beautiful and “human.” They showed how he had grown to lean into his humaness. Such a nice change from sci-fi depicting humans as the villians.
I love watching the bonus features on DVD’s. Some people think it takes away from the “movie magic.” But, for me it just adds to it – as long as I don’t watch them before I watch the movie, that is… If I had seen these movie making features way back, I might have just found my way into a career in movie making in some way. I am impressed and enchanted by how they do it all. And the dedication to details and all that makes it happen just blows me away.
I initially really gained an appreciation for film making watching Hearts of Darkness, which was a documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s struggles making Apocalypse Now. Incredible. I also realized that for the truly great film makers / directors, this is their craft – it is their art. It is as if they could not be doing anything else.
This seems true of J.J. Abrams. From the bonus features you see he is not only brilliant, he is emotional and caring and fun and enthusiastic.
Wow – Great Flash!..as JJ would say!
