Star Trek
In making this 2009 revival of the revered sci-fi franchise, director J.J. Abrams took a major risk, using new actors in the roles that were so emphatically identified with the original crew, and potentially pissing millions of fans off in the process. A lot of that is cleared up by the brilliant time travel plot dynamic in the script, which essentially makes this a literal SEQUEL instead of a remake or reboot, firmly saying that the past history of Trek in previous movies and TV shows will remain intact, while saying that a number of characters from the distant future of the franchise (including Leonard Nimoy’s Spock) have come through a black hole in time to change the original events and establish this as a new alternate reality. Starting with one of the best, and emotionally overwhelming opening scenes of all time, showing the birth of James Kirk while his father perishes at the hands of the Romulan invaders from 150 years in the future (leaving this Kirk without a father and implying that he will be even more wild and rebellious than the Shatner Version 1.0), one can see that Abrams is clearly in control when it comes to immediately sucking an audience into a story. Without a doubt, the rest of the film cannot live up to that first ten minutes, but what we get is pretty damn good. The Romulan invader (played by Eric Bana) vows to use his advanced technology from the future to destroy all Federation planets, and that leaves it up to the classic crew (as young men and women) to get together and face him down. This leads to some mixed results with the casting: Karl Urban, for one, tries a little too hard as Bones, and the script saddles him with spewing out one McCoy cliché after another whenever he’s onscreen (“Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor not a physicist!” “You green-blooded bastard!”) while Simon Pegg slides perfectly into the role of Scotty, getting his Scottish brogue and mannerisms down perfectly in a way that would make James Doohan proud. As Kirk, Chris Pine has the devil may care pretty boy appeal of young Shatner, and thankfully shies away from Shatner’s legendary speech inflections to create his own take on the character which still remains faithful (including Kirk’s classic fetish for green alien girl sex), while it took me a spell to get into Zachary Quinto’s Spock, mostly due to the fact that what Spock goes through here results in his character being altered more than any of the others in the series, with Spock doing something towards the end that Nimoy’s rendition could never imagine, and the future possibility that his Spock will fall more on his human side of emotions than the more logic-based style of his predecessor. Thankfully, we DO have Nimoy here to acknowledge this change and pass the torch (plus remind folks of the glorious past of the franchise), so it can be deemed acceptable, even if I was a little thrown off by the sudden romance that develops between Spock and Uhura (the gorgeous Zoe Saldana). As for the others, John Cho and Anton Yelchin are fine as Sulu and Chekov, while Ben Cross and Winona Ryder(!) bring some dramatic weight to the film as Spock’s parents. As for the key role of the villain, Eric Bana seems rough around the edges and at times is all over the place, but not being 100% familiar with how Romulans have been portrayed in the franchise, it works quite well to portray a bad guy who is obviously insane in his quest to wipe out a universe before his own time. As for the action, pacing, cinematography et al, it is all top of the line, showing that Abrams has a knack for the material that Roddenberry would surely approve of. Overall, a proud dusting off of the franchise that, if continued right, will make sure that it continues to live on for a very long time…
9/10