Star Trek Movie Review

We had a great opportunity Saturday to hit up two movies, back to back. It's been a long time since we've been able to do this plus, sometimes there just aren't two movies out that we actually want to see. Here's our choices:

Star Trek
Grade: A

Our first movie of choice was Star Trek. We were able to see it at an IMAX theatre as well, which was fun, but did cost $4 more per person.

What an awesome movie this is. Great story, well acted and amazing special effects. I now completely understand why certain people I know, have seen it multiple times. If you are hesistant at all because you aren't a huge Star Trek fan. No worries. You don't need to be to enjoy this film. The movie does a good job standing alone. Although a familiarity with the original series does allow for the appreciation of the care the filmmakers took in paying subtle homage to the original portrayals. On the other hand...not being a devoted Trekie allowed me to not be bothered by the whole time space continuum thing going on. It was just a great ride and I enjoyed every moment.

Angels and Demons
Grade: C+

Our other movie was Angels and Demons. Let's start with the fact that I loved the book, which can sometimes make it harder for me to enjoy the film version. Sometimes it's just too difficult for a film to live up to a good book. The movie was good, but I felt it had to work way too hard. There are just so many religious and historical points that need to be covered in order for the plot to move along. This causes the movie to seem forced and too heavy handed. I think this movie suffers from some of the same failings as the movie version of The DaVinci Code. I think Dan Brown's books just work better as books then they do as movies.

I do appreciate the fact that Tom Hanks' character cut his hair (good bye creepy mullet) and the woman playing the female lead (Ayelet Zurer) did a much better acting job in her role then Audrey Tautou did in The DaVinci Code. There are many action packed sequences to keep you interested and I really felt the scene in the fountain. The photography of Rome was spectacular as well.

As for the somewhat outlandish ending...well, it was even more outlandish in the book. They did their best to reign in the fantastic and so what if anti-matter doesn't really explode, at least it didn't open with a ....based on a true story.