Monday, May 11, 2009

Star Trek

Saw it last weekend. It was the first movie I've seen in perhaps years that I finished and wanted to walk right back into the theater to watch again. It's a great movie, and the art direction and costuming are particularly inspired. It's amazing to watch the way the movie adopts the style and clothing and geometry of the original series, yet makes slight changes here and there that suddenly make those old uniforms and ships and hair styles different and cool.

Plus, Zachary Quinto eats up the camera every time he's in the shot. He manages to add subtle undercurrents of emotion under Spock's stoic exterior (and the occasional not-so-subtle boiling over) that make him especially fun to watch. Quinto's Spock is a very different animal from Nimoy's, one whose emotions are much closer to the surface and more actively held in check. There's a particular neck pinch, for instance, where Quinto's expression seems unchanged from everywhere else in the movie, but he seems somehow... unimpressed with his victim, which adds a nice element of humor to the scene and gives Spock a hint of what we might think of as "swagger." This Spock isn't just a badass; he knows he's a badass. And he can bring some serious pain if you manage to piss him off.

Abrams had a lot of fun making this movie, and it's a hoot to watch.

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