Unreal Movie Review: Star Trek

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I am not what you would call a patron of the Star Trek universe. I am not a Trekker, a Trekkie or anything in between. I’ve seen probably what amounts to a handful of episodes of the original series as they aired on Spike TV, and was less than impressed with their overwhelming cheese factor. I never had the patience for TNG or DS9, and the glimpses I caught of Voyager and Enterprise were downright laughable. I am not, nor have I ever been a Star Trek fan, so it is with great pleasure I say that yes, I am now.

What J.J. Abrams has done with this Star Trek reboot is seemingly impossible. He’s appeased both die-hard fans of the series, while making an exceptionally enjoyable movie that requires no previous knowledge of the franchise. It’s nearly a perfect balance between fan-pleasing and crowd-pleasing, and it’s the most fun I’ve had in a theater since I watched a clown perform an unsightly magic trick last July.

The film opens with an intergalactic space conflict of epic proportions. A mammoth ship has appeared out of nowhere, and attacked a Starfleet vessel without provocation. After the captain dies during an attempt to negotiate a cease fire, it falls upon first officer George Kirk to evacuate the ship’s crew, including his currently in-labor wife, while he holds off the enemy assault. As he stays behind to ensure the survival of the ejecting escape pods, over the intercom he gets to hear his son’s first cries and names him James, right before plunging his ship into the heart of the enemy freighter.

Years later, a rebellious Kirk has grown up into a charming and brash twenty something with little regard for anything but women and cars. After a scuffle at a local bar with some overzealous Starfleet cadets, he runs into an old friend of his dad’s who challenges him to get his life together and join Starfleet, and try to be half the man his father was.

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A surprisingly…logical casting choice.

Kirk comes around and enlists, and during three years of officer training, finds himself making friends with a young Dr. Bones McCoy, having his advances rejected by communications officer Uhura, and feuding with Vulcan Starfleet prodigy Spock, whose logical test scenarios fail to incapacitate the deceitfully resourceful Kirk.

All the young cadets are immediately into a conflict situation, as the ship that killed Kirk’s father reappears, and he must rally a crew as equally inexperienced as he is to stop the mass destruction that the ship’s Romulan captain, Nero, promises to reign down on all the races of the galaxy.

If I’ve taken anything out of Star Trek, it’s that it’s made me hate George Lucas and his childish Star Wars prequel trilogy all the more. Aside from fan homages like Serenity and art films like Sunshine, I’ve forgotten what it was like to be truly amazed and engaged by a sci-fi space blockbuster. Abrams has done something masterful here, taking one of the most elaborate and complex sci-fi universes out there, and made it accessible to both fans and novices of the series alike, and what we have is a film that nearly everyone in the world (except Anthony Lane) seems to enjoy. It makes me want to knock George Lucas out for a few years and put Abrams in charge of a Star Wars reboot as well.

The success of the film can be attributed to a combination of its brilliant writing and pacing, and its formerly untested cast that rises to the film’s daunting challenges at every turn. This will undoubtedly be Chris Pine’s defining role that propels him to stardom, like Jackman’s Wolverine or Crowe’s Maximus. Sure, he won’t win any Oscars, but his swaggering performance is exactly what we needed from the man who would become James T. Kirk, and Pine delivers on all fronts.

Pine is evenly matched by Zachary Quinto, who does a surprisingly excellent job as the legendary Vulcan, Spock. He balances restraint and logic with passion and fury, as any human/Vulcan mix should. It must have been terrifying to step into a role that enormous, but Quinto proves himself up to it, and makes me realize that the Heroes writing staff has really been holding him back all this time.

But the film wouldn’t be half of what it is without the supporting cast, all also with big roles to fill. Anton Yelchin, John Cho and Simon Pegg are Chekov, Sulu and Scotty respectively, and each bring a dimensional presence to their characters. Yelchin’s accent may be unavoidably laughable, but it’s not distracting, nor is Pegg’s emphatic Scottish burr. The characters never seem like caricatures of their classic predecessors, which is necessary toward making the film seem authentic and original at the same time.

These three are balanced out by the more grounded McCoy and Uhura, played by Karl Urban and Zoe Saldana. I thought McCoy could have used a few more lines, but I liked the misdirection used in the trailer for a Uhura/Kirk hookup. That’s all I’ll say on that front.

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In the future, douchebags get tribal tattoos straight onto their foreheads.

Perhaps my only complaint with the cast could be in Eric Bana’s Nero, who despite what I’d heard Bana claim in interviews, really seems to have a terribly shallow amount of emotional depth, and was more or less a yelling, ranting unsympathetic space tyrant, the likes of which we’ve seen countless times before.

This appearance of unrepentant evil is partially due to rather large plot holes surrounding his revenge plan. Sure, he was upset about the loss of his wife, and it’s understandable he wanted to change the past to save her, but instead of committing genocide on two different races (both of whom incidentally did everything they could to try to save his destroyed planet), couldn’t he just have warned Starfleet about the impending space disaster that wipes out his homeworld, saving his people without the complete destruction of two other races? But time traveling space diplomacy wouldn’t have made for a very exciting film I suppose.

Lastly, it goes without saying that Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock was an absolutely flawless decision for the film, and doesn’t feel forced in the least. Once William Shatner finally sees the finished product, he should finally be able to shut his mouth as he will see that the way the film was written, it wouldn’t have made any sense for him to show up, and if he did, Chris Pine probably would have been obliged to make a comment like, “Man, I really let myself go.”

The Star Trek reboot is an unqualified success on every level. The film succeeds emotionally, comedically, and visually and it has reassured me that a sci-fi blockbusting franchise can exist again, and this time it rests in the hands of someone far more capable than George Lucas. As a new convert, I look forward to seeing this series live long and prosper once again.

5 out of 5 stars

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“Alright, how much should we ask to get paid for the next one?”

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4 Comments

  1. Totally agree. I got dragged to see this by my bf with promises of being bought something pretty to compensate, as I hated the TV shows with a passion, and despite an incredible effort on my part to hate it, I somehow ended up loving it. So it *must* be a great film, as far as I’m concerned.

  2. never was a trekki, now am, if they give me igger and better sequels (at least star trek didn’t go lucas on us)

    PS: for the record episode III wasn’t so bad

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