This movie is very good. It has fantastic music, engaging characters, beautiful photography of an awesome boat sailing around and a solid story to tie it all together. The most exciting thing for me, being a big old nerd, is that it is basically a Star Trek movie. As a matter of fact this review is an admission of nerd-guilt more than it is a valuable critique, but no one reads this blog so it's no big deal.
It's just like The Wrath of Khan or The Undiscovered Country or First Contact. One of the good (even-numbered) movies where the Enterprise goes up against a stronger foe, and has to use their brains to make up for missing brawn, reconciling their dedication to exploration and discovery with their commitment to defend their territory from the invading offenders. In the Star Treks, they're up against the Borg or the Klingons (or Ricardo Montalbon) and they use special sensors they had for documenting gaseous anomalies to let their missiles take out the invisible Klingon ship. Or something like that.
As the Enterprise often does, Russell Crowe's crew must choose between personal and professional loyalties. The Spock to Russell Crowe's Kirk is the ship's doctor. Like Kirk and Spock, these two share a close bond despite their difference in rank. They play delightful cello and violin duets and argue when the doctor wants to play Darwin and Russel Crowe needs to prepare the ship for battle.
The battles are exciting, gritty and carry a certain substance and weight that is missing from the ship battles in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The good guys defeat their foe through clever tricksy-ness that basically amounts to disguising their warp signature to make the Klingons think that they are something they are not.
Cost/Benefit Analysis: Definitely worth the cost of a rental. The sound and photography are so good that I would totally pay to price to see it on the big screen if I ever get the chance. The last little duet they play alone makes it worth while.
