Paragraph Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back.

I found this to be a decent movie; not great, not awful, just decent. I didn't regret seeing it, probably won't see it again. It had its good parts and its bad parts, as I'll discuss. I feel like that's about as neutral a first impression as I can give, but that's how I felt. I was a bit let down if only because I don't think it came close to measuring up against the 2009 Star Trek reboot; of course with rare exceptions sequels demonstrate diminishing returns, but I had hoped the four-year gap between films meant they really found a way to nail it. The greatest attribute of this franchise to my mind remains the brilliant casting, as there are no duds to be found in the ensemble, with Chris Pine and Zach Quinto as the standouts, plus Zoe Saldana getting a nice chance to step up more here than in the previous installment. Benedict Cumberbatch brought a great sense of command and menace to the antagonist of the piece, channeling Alan Rickman but with more physicality. Alice Eve slotted in nicely as well, holding her own against the aforementioned talents plus Karl Urban, etc. I found Peter Weller a bit over the top in his role, but that feels more down to the plotting than his work (and tough to discuss without hitting spoiler territory). I also think the script was tremendously strong when it came to dialogue; my favorite parts of the movie were the funny moments or emotional exchanges, and that has as much to do with the writing as the acting. It's also a visually stunning piece of work, no question, and the action sequences are top notch, so kudos to J.J. Abrams on that. There were two major negatives dragging in particular the second half down in my opinion, first and foremost being the handling of the story's villain. I feel like Abrams and company got a little too bogged down in trying to create mysteries and twists regarding the bad guy, and in the process muddied the motivations; by three quarters in, I was a bit lost on why certain characters were doing what and whether or not I should be rooting for or against them. My other issue would be what felt like diminishing stakes as the plot rolled out. In the beginning of the movie, I felt like major players were in very real danger, which was exciting, but there were so many close calls early on that by the mid-point I didn't get the sense of any true peril; I know it's tough to really ask for that in an action movie, but for whatever reason, it felt more glaring than usual here, whether it was what felt like a too deliberate "and this is how we'll save whoever needs to be saved later" smoking gun or the "it doesn't matter if people are dying as long as they're not the ones whose names we now" syndrome I've been noticing more and more in this type of film lately. I'd recommend you try this one for yourself, as I think it's very much a case of mileage varying by taste.

2009: A Year of Paragraph Movie Reviews

I sure did see quite a few movies this year, and wouldn't you know it, I wrote about them all.

Before the new decade kicks in later this week, I thought it might be fun to go back through my Paragraph Movie Reviews for 2009 and snag a couple relevant sentences from each breaking down the gist of what I thought.

Hopefully this will help guide you through the use of all those gift cards you got for Christmas or Chanukah or at the very least finally clue you in as to what I thought of He's Just Not That Into You in case heaven forbid you missed it the first time around.

I included links to the full reviews if these teasers peak your interest at all. Also, I realized I start a lot of review pieces out with "This movie" or "This film" and have thusly grown as a person.

Doubt
My favorite thing about Doubt is probably the way it is shot. There are no quick cuts; every shot is long, deliberate and creates an effect that you need to be paying attention. John Patrick Shanley, who both wrote the play adapted for the movie and directed the film, did an excellent job.

Revolutionary Road
Forget Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm St; if you're a 20-something looking to get married anytime soon, this is the scariest horror movie you'll ever see. That aside, it's one heckuva film and I was thoroughly engrossed for its two hour duration.

Frost/Nixon
I'd describe this film as competently constructed and occasionally powerful, but never quite reaching the level of brilliance it seems to be striving for. [Frank Langella] is a force, physically occupying the figure he is recreating with incredible commitment, and making Nixon aggravating as a foil for the "good guys," yet charismatic and fascinating as well.

Slumdog Millionaire
Boy howdy, this wasn't just an awesome movie, it was an incredible feat. It's been some time where I walked away from a film marveling at not necessarily a performance or a scene, but how well constructed it all was and my hat is off to Danny Boyle for one of the best directing jobs I think I've ever seen. This movie is like a perfect stew or a well-assembled machine in the way it takes so many disparate moving parts and matches them up into a final product that just takes your breath away.

Milk
The unfortunate thing for me is that I'd say the bulk of my problems with it come from filmmaking decisions which overshadow a great script and excellent acting performances. The first half of the movie is just badly paced, racing through the early portion of Milk's awakening as an activist and taking all the punch out of landmark events. Once things slow down for the second half after he's established and time is taken to really invest in the workings Milk's life and the political system, it gets good, but your end result is an uneven viewing experience.

Watchmen
Even though most of the lines and scenes are verbatim from the comic, it's simply not Watchmen brought to life ala how most reverent fans would probably like. The sooner you put that aside (I did it around the scene where Dan and Laurie fight the thugs in the alley and it became clear that it was just going to be all the super hero scenes and that's all), the better off you are.

I Love You, Man
This movie has a little more meat to it than some of the other comedies much of its cast has done lately, and that works both for and against it. Me personally, I enjoyed seeing the actors stretch and appreciated a lot of the heavier stuff behind the laughs. On the flipside, I can see where the slightly more realistic tone and reined-in characters could be jarring for somebody expecting another "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" or "Knocked Up."

Rachel Getting Married
Honestly, the last half hour or so felt like I was just watching somebody's wedding video and I'd only get yanked out of it when they showed Anne Hathaway because I wondered when she was going to snap. Speaking of Anne Hathaway, she's absolutely brilliant and I don't think I would have checked in with the rest of what was going on around her if not for her performance.

Adventureland
I have definitely seen films that are more technically proficient, funnier, and flat out better than "Adventureland" pretty recently, but I haven't seen a movie that gave me the kinda enjoyment and satisfaction I got with this one in years. It's a very intangible and hard to pinpoint thing, because like I said I know I've seen plenty of good movies lately, but something about this one just caught and connected with me on a level that made me grin.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Stir that all together, mix in some trademark bold Woody Allen camera choices (I presume, having never seen another Woody Allen movie) and narration I personally found grating, and you come out with a movie I didn't mind seeing, but could have done fine without.

Star Trek
I'm by no means a Star Trek devotee, so I think I can say I'm fairly without bias when proclaiming this a really fun, really exciting, really clever and really just all-around well-done movie. Honestly, I hope more action movie writers and directors use this as a guide for how to do their stuff the right way. There was a pretty big ensemble cast but nobody got lost in the shuffle, screen time was well-managed, and while everybody got their moments, there was no doubt who the story centered around.

Terminator Salvation
A really good action flick should have a clear endgame established early on and everything that occurs leading up is either a landmark or sidetrack on the road to getting there; with Terminator Salvation, you don't get the sense that there is a long-term destination, just a series of meaningless fights and chase scenes cobbled together without an idea of the big picture.

The Hangover
Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper do what they do best as the dork and the asshole they respectively always seem to play, but that's kinda the clarion call of this movie: don't fix it if it ain't broke. Zach Galifianakis is the breakout here as he has a creepy awkwardness that makes you uncomfortable but also makes you just need to laugh; he really milks every line without being ostentatious about it.

The Proposal
This movie is a textbook example of how good actors can elevate subpar material when they really try. As far as story and script, "The Proposal" is pretty clichéd, not that well-paced and generally lacking in a lot of areas; in other words, it's an average romantic comedy. However, this film is so well-cast that the lean portions are at least watchable and the good stuff that could fall flat in lesser hands really shines through.

He’s Just Not That Into You
I'm shocked that A) Somebody made this movie (ok, not that shocked, Hollywood is crazy), B) Somebody else thought it needed to be over two hours and C) That so many talented actors read the script and still signed on. It's basically 129 minutes of people having the types of annoying conversations about relationship clichés that you fast forward in other movies and avoid in real life.

Bruno
Despite the fact that it was essentially a movie about fooling regular people and making them look foolish, Borat still had a certain earnestness and sincerity at its core that gave it a sort of uplifting quality that Bruno lacks. There are some truly funny parts of Bruno to be sure, but I noticed most of them involved extreme and graphic sexual comedy, which was more of a rarity and "final level" type deal for Borat, whereas here it feels like they couldn't figure out more subtle but equally funny alternatives.

Married Life
In the end, this film's biggest problem was that it simply wasn't that interesting or captivating, even for 90 minutes, and the good acting, decent jokes and quality camerawork only elevated it to an average piece of work.

Step Brothers
This was less a full-formed movie and more a series of bits that Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Adam McKay didn't have room for on Funny or Die. The physical comedy is top notch and some of the scenes and lines are hilarious, but there's no real coherent plot or flow to get caught up in.

Sunshine Cleaning
The premise here--down-on-her-luck single mom and her bad seed sister make cash by cleaning up crime scenes--is a neat gimmick and decent hook, but really more just a clever set-for a group of talented actors to do what they do best. However, as much as this film was more of an actor's showcase to me, I don't want to undersell the script, which did a nice job of balancing dark comedy with some real heavy stuff centered on loss and family.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
In the case of Chris Bell's examination of America's steroid culture, the author has intimate ties to his investigation, and as such, he creates a powerful, informative and oft-times heartbreaking piece. The project comes off as earnest because you can sense through Bell he desperately wants to find some logic in the paradoxes that surround him, and his genuine reactions to his findings will hit you harder because he comes off more as an average guy doing a research paper or something as opposed to a polished director angling for awards.

(500) Days of Summer
From the first scene it totally tries to win you over with its cute little home movies, its endearingly witty leads and its wonderful soundtrack, but then somewhere around the 45 minute mark you realize all those narrative and flash-forward portents of doom weren't just the usual empty romantic comedy teases, this is indeed about a very REAL relationship, not a fairy tale, and you get gut-punched watching the couple you just fell in love with have to deal with the same stuff you probably did as you were searching for your soul mate and wondering why it didn't always work out like it did in the movies.

Extract
Writer/director Mike Judge tries to graft on some heart and some dark comedy in various places, but it's a forced, awkward fit; "Extract" is ultimately a flick that leaves you wondering with such great talent involved, what exactly went wrong.

Year One
I do have to say that after really getting irritated by Michael Cera the past couple years, his performance here reminded me why I was once a big fan; I really think he's at his best doing pure comedy and farce--as he is here--rather than trying to incorporate dramatic over tones beyond the grasp of that one character he plays.

Precious
Mo'Nique is shocking as the abusive mother, delivering a consistent intensity that she is able to manipulate beautifully and make terrifying by using her humor to lull you into a false sense of peace and then jolt you with her most heinous actions; Mo'Nique's final scene is basically what should be listed in the dictionary under "Oscar Clip" (with all due respect to Wayne Campbell).

Funny People
I'm impressed by the inventiveness and sheer endurance of the filmmaker here on a movie that he could have probably cranked out as an hour and a half chucklefest; he certainly had a vision and committed, accomplishing what he set out to do at least in part.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
It's almost as if [director Sacha] Gervasi wants to delve into these guys' lives as much as is necessary to make them accessible, but then stop short so they can still be characters as well. If Gervasi failed in any respect, it's that he made half of a movie so good that I'm really bummed I feel like I didn't get to see the rest.

For what it's worth, here are my top five of the year in the order I saw 'em: Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, Adventureland, Star Trek and (500) Days of Summer (with The Hangover coming in at sixth after a follow-up DVD viewing).

Seeya at the pictures!

(More Than A) Paragraph Movie Reviews: Star Trek

So, before anything else...SPOILERS.


Over the past five years, I discovered almost inexplicably that I love "Star Trek." This seriously caught me off guard.

Sure, I'm generally a nerdy guy and follow all sorts of sci fi franchises in one way or another, but if you would've asked me in my prime geeky teenage years whether Trek was one of my passions, I'd have most certainly said "No." I watched "The Next Generation" as a kid on and off before become a regular watcher of the later seasons (I still don't get what the big deal was with Tasha Yar). And thanks to an awkward night staying late at the home of my Scoutmaster's family, I was soon totally absorbed into "Deep Space Nine" for its entire run (probably my favorite TV show ever). After that, like most casual Trek watchers, I bailed three seasons into "Voyager" and only came to "Enterprise" on and off during its later seasons after friends had told me producers had ditched its dopey "let's appeal to moms" theme song in favor of stories heavy on "TOS" continuity porn. Somewhere in there, I watched most of the mythology-heavy episodes with the original crew as well as all of the movies, though I was always a '90s Trek supporter before I was a Kirk devotee.

But while I obviously dug the world of Gene Roddenberry enough to devote hours of time watching various Trek enterprises (hooray for puns!) I never had a strong passion for most of it the way I did for comics or "Star Wars" or Ray Bradbury. "Star Trek" series were things I watched on the periphery – mostly late at night or on the weekends with little or no discussion on the stories with my brother or my friends afterwards. Even in the prime years of awesomeness on "DS9," my relationship with the show was singular and almost kind of solitary.

Then a few years ago near the final death of the Rick Berman era of the franchise, I got sucked back into Trek in a really weird way. Like I said, some friends who are much more knowledgeable and devoted to the franchise piqued my interest enough to start popping in for the occasional "Enterprise" episode while I spent my first year home from college watching almost the entire run of "DS9" with my buddy Grog as we both faced the frightening prospects of finding real jobs. Where as a kid I always kind of sheepishly followed the idea that ultimately Trek wasn't as cool as "Star Wars" because it was way too talky and (more importantly) obvious in its interaction with its prime metaphors, I started to see with my second round of watching that Trek was at its strongest when it embraced the things that made it really fucking Trekky. Sermonizing devoid of subtext and blunt, over the top alien races may come off as really cheesy at face value, but ultimately those building blocks made for fun, twisty plotting and fantastic character dynamics and personal development. I started to appreciate these things even more as I began paying attention to the ins and outs of serial television writing (especially when I could compare the later works of the writers I learned had made "DS9" so great on series like "Battlestar Galactica" and "The 4400").

Suddenly, I found myself wasting plenty of time filling in the gaps of my Trek knowledge during massive trips down the Wikipedia hole and getting pretty upset at the idea that UPN would cancel "Enterprise" prematurely (and I didn't even like that show!). Out of nowhere, I was finding myself connecting with elements of the series that had always kind of hung around in the back of my head but never really manifested in a big way, and I also found I had loads of opinions on Trek topics that I wasn't even familiar with. Mostly, I really started to identify with the broader metaphorical ideas "Star Trek" trafficked in: grand exploration and the bridging of various cultures through open diplomacy. It was a strange and kind of disconcerting place to find myself in.

And then J.J. Abrams came along.


Like I said, I've got no real strong connection to the original "Star Trek" series even now. I don't really feel strongly that there's a "right way" to deal with the stories of Kirk and his crew. I don't hold fidelity to any kind of continuity argument made about treating the original episodes as some kind of unshakeable canon. In fact, I could have cared less if Abrams and his Trek brain trust had just come out and said, "We're doing a straight reboot and ignoring pretty much everything that came before plot-wise." When I walked into the movie theater last Friday and watched "Star Trek," I wasn't hoping for any kind of sacrosanct treatment of what I'd known from before as much as I was hoping that whatever new direction the creators took the franchise in, it would hold the potential to deliver a similar kind of story value I'd grown to love in the original confines of the fictional world.

And here's the crazy thing: I think that maybe Abrams might have done what I'd hoped even though there was next to nothing vaguely resembling the kinds of things I love about "Star Trek" in his film. The Abrams movie contains no story engagement with the themes of discovery, exploration and brotherhood that have served as the crux of the franchise since day one. The ideals of the United Federation of Planets and the often mocked Prime Directive weren't simply glossed over – they didn't appear at all on screen. In the biggest sense possible, "Star Trek" side-stepped all the bigger ideas that you'd commonly associate with "Star Trek." And yeah, I'm sure plenty of people who aren't fans of the franchise who will point me towards the very funny and often blogged Onion video that hit this week mocking "scenes set at a long table where interstellar diplomacy is debated in endless detail," but writing all the bigger themes off as boring and nerdy is a bullshit cop out. There's nothing that says a creative set of individuals can't tell a story that both expresses the values Trek has always held up as exemplary while still being exciting both in terms of human drama and big action visuals. Abrams just didn't meld those two ideas here.

But just when the three of you still reading this are probably thinking that absence means I hated "Star Trek," I'm here to tell you you're wrong. I really, really, really liked the movie.

At the risk of getting too far off on a tangent here, really the best way I can explain what I thought of Abram's "Trek" and what made it work as a film is to steal an idea from a comics blogger I was reading of late. See, Tim O'Neil spent most of March rolling out a long critical analysis of Mark Waid and Alex Ross' DC superhero series Kingdom Come. The series of posts is archived here, and is really worth the time of anyone interested in modern comics, but for our purposes I wanted to quote O'Neil's explanation of "momentism" and how Alan Moore (a favorite writer of "Trek" producer Damon Lindelof) used that theory in crafting a few legendary Superman stories:

Moore's approach to these Superman stories is, in its own way, as remarkable as his approach to Watchmen: instead of deconstructing the entire genre, he deconstructed a single character. He reverse-engineered Superman in such a way that he was able to deduce the most optimum possible vehicle for telling the best Superman story - what story can hit the best Superman "beats"? How do you build a superhero comic around an iconic character like Superman? Easy: you figure out the most quintessential things Superman does and build a story around them.

Swap out "Moore" with "Abrams" and "Superman" with "Star Trek," and you've pretty much got exactly what happened with the core of the new film. "Star Trek" is an exercise in proving to non-Trek fans what is supposed to be cool about the original series while throwing a few choice continuity bones to longtime fans. Scene after scene, what we get as an audience is a "greatest hits" style clip show of classic Trek moments. Kirk cockily blows some shit up. Spock uses the nerve pinch. Scotty gives it all she's got. Bones is a doctor, not a physicist. Sulu has a sword. A red shirt bit it on an away mission. Etc, etc, etc. And while that kind of writing can easily slide into nostalgia or pointless naval gazing, all credit goes to Abrams as a filmmaker for combining all these elements into a whole that felt fresh and fun while also remaining familiar. That is not an easy thing to do, but I smiled all the way through without ever cringing at moments which in past iterations of this franchise (and this crew) have come off as really dopey.


In a way, this doesn't come as a surprise since everything we'd seen of "Star Trek" before it hit looked carefully crafted to evoke the original series in the new millennium, right down to the fact that the actors cast in the roles all held a strong physical resemblance to those who they were replacing. But even in that, Abrams picked people who could convincingly carry the parts. Karl Urban's Bones slayed me almost every time he stepped into the frame, and both Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto fit the model for Kirk and Spock while not merely tossing off a pastiche of Shatner and Nimoy. In fact, I think that Nimoy was proabably the weak link acting wise (followed closely by Eric Bana's Nero, who was all right if forgettable as the gravely-voice Romulan villain from the future). My good friend The Last Angry Man seemed quite displeased with the broad comedic reading Simon Pegg gave Scotty (which he'll doubtlessly be expounding upon in his must-read forthcoming review at The Secret Base) although I thought Pegg was just fine if underdeveloped along with all the non-Kirk, non-Spock players.

Still, was the movie really "about" anything beyond its characters being its characters in a slightly more dangerous and unfamiliar (and shiny) version of the same setting they inhabited in the '60s? I'm sure that if you'd query Abrams and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, they'd tell you that the core of what the story is really about lies in that Kirk/Spock relationship and how the two men of different worlds worked past similar pain and loss to become great friends, but I really didn't feel that was in there so much as what we got was a sharp establishment of a screen relationship we already expected. Doubtlessly, Spock's warring emotions and the torment he received for being a Vulcan/human hybrid dished up the closest thing to those metaphors of brotherhood and cultural connections I was praising earlier. But at the same time, I felt the whole "you must feel and accept fear" subtext ultimately got brushed aside in favor of scenes that were blatantly about two buds killing shit with lasers. And its not like Spock's speech-making affected Kirk at all. Kirk remained the character he was throughout the film with very little growth or prodding, a surprisingly effective choice that comics and TV writer John Rogers gets into on this must-read post at Kung Fu Monkey.

And you know what? I'm totally cool with all of that. Even though "Star Trek" wasn't really about any of the things that made me grow to love Trek out of nowhere, its blatantly commercial goal of reestablishing Trek as a blockbuster franchise again was done as smartly as it could have been done, and nothing about the film leads me to believe that future installments can't pick up the bigger metaphors and get boldly going into some territory that will connect with audiences outside of popcorn spectacle. In fact, where "Star Trek" left things for future installments stands pretty poised to take advantage of those elements in what I think are some pretty interesting ways. On a goofball continuity level, the altered reality timeline the film sets up really makes for fresh and unexpected stories in a way that most prequels just can't pull off. People can die on "Star Trek" now, which at a base dramatic level is kind of necessary to bring people along for part 2 as opposed to weak sauce like this proposed "Gossip Girl" spinoff.

On top of that, the idea that Spock's people are now left without a planet can make for some damn interesting explorations into the nature of survival on a physical and culture scale. Or, if that road feels too "Battlestar Galacticay" for Abrams and company, the whole universe is out there for the Enterprise to explore. I've got my fingers crossed that the director and his cohorts will actually engage with that kind of material, and from what I've read, the exploration aspect of Trek was something that drew him in to begin with. Future iterations of Trek will probably not be charmingly ham-fisted like some of the past stuff was, and that's fine. In fact, as much as I like the over the top nature of so much Trek, I have to admit that in today's media landscape, survival will go hand in hand with a little more subtlety.

One thing I do hope is that after another movie or two, someone can take Trek back to TV full time. While the movies are great for building spectacles and such, the long term exploration of a diverse cast of adventuring types in space just works better on TV. I mean, trying to honestly develop seven full time players and probably another five to ten supporting characters in a two hour movie is fucking insane, and it's pretty hard to do with 22 episodes a year too. And while the semi-big names and up and comers in "Star Trek" most definitely won't sign on to step into a long term primetime series when their movie careers are just starting to take off, Abrams background as a TV man means that he should be able to spin some new characters and new situations out of this new timeline. Whether it's set around the same era as "Star Trek" or in the past or in a new, altered future, there's more life in this franchise yet, and that's a very good thing.



NOTE: All the images from this review come off of my pal Brian Warmoth's genius new comedy blog Lolodeck, which I've been totally remiss in linking to. Bookmark that site, and while you're at it, read Warmoth's review here. And while I'm linking, this rundown of continuity connections at ComixMix I found on Comics Alliance is pretty damn solid if that's your thing.

Twins?

After seeing Star Trek last night, I feel strongly that...


...Zoe Saldana and...


...Jada Pinkett Smith were separated at birth.

Well, not at birth, but Jada could be Zoe's older sister or at least cousin for sure.

I have been told I am wrong. But am I..?

Paragraph Movie Reviews: Star Trek

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back...

I'm by no means a Star Trek devotee, so I think I can say I'm fairly without bias when proclaiming this a really fun, really exciting, really clever and really just all-around well-done movie. Honestly, I hope more action movie writers and directors use this as a guide for how to do their stuff the right way. There was a pretty big ensemble cast but nobody got lost in the shuffle, screen time was well-managed, and while everybody got their moments, there was no doubt who the story centered around. I was a little worried that they ate up too much time in the first hour and a half and would end up rushing to a conclusion, but J.J. Abrams and company deftly guided the story to a satisfying and well-paced conclusion. Humor was a big part of what made the movie work, but it was never overwhelming. With the two true stars of the film, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, you come away knowing these guys are destined to be big-time movie stars from their presence and confidence. At first I thought Pine poured on the pompousness to the point of not being able to take his Kirk seriously at all, but he is so charming that he wins you over and makes you smile with the act, and by the end he's got the swagger so down pat. Quinto is spot-on perfect as Spock, showing a range I was sure he had and delivering lines that could really easily sound absurd with ease and weight--he's the film's grounding force and has amazing chemistry with his co-stars. Like I said, the rest of the crew acquits themselves well, but I'd say only Karl Urban and Simon Pegg really make the most of what they're given (but to be fair, they're given the best stuff). Eric Bana was nearly unrecognizable as the villain, Nero, and that's a compliment. Bruce Greenwood was the unsung hero of the movie. And Leonard Nimoy may look like the oldest man alive, but damn, he can still go. The effects were, as was to be expected, awesome, and the action sequences were extremely exciting, with John Cho's mid-air fencing dual delivering as an expected highlight. There were times when I thought the good guys overcame impossible odds with maybe a bit much ease, but dammit, it's kinda refreshing to see that. Likewise, there was some cheesiness and over-the-top stuff, but nine times out of ten it was endearing rather than annoying. Honestly, if I have two complaints one would be, of all things, the score, which I felt was way too retro and didn't fit the movie to me, and two that Anton Yelchin's Russian accent was too much (he was fine, the accent was too much). I don't know if I can promise you'll love Star Trek, but I'd be surprised if you didn't at least enjoy it.