Summer '09 - Blockbuster #2 - "Star Trek"

This review will contain some minor spoilers, but since the film made $75 million in one weekend, I think it's pretty likely that you, Constant Reader, have already seen the film.

Long story short, I loved it. 

This film really is a "reboot" in a variety of ways.  In the simplest sense, we're rewinding in history, back to the early days of Kirk and Spock (we see both briefly as children) and recasting the roles with new actors.  Thankfully, I can say everyone does a bang-up job. 

Anton Yelchin's Chekov is youthful and fun.  Zoë Saldana's performance as Uhura is surprisingly touching.  John Cho captures the no-nonsense straightforwardness of Sulu.  Karl Urban is hilarious (and a bit underused) as Bones McCoy.  And Simon Pegg gives Scotty more life than the character had in any of the previous movies.

Of course, since this is Star Trek, it's all about Kirk and Spock.  I was able, near the end of the film, to see Zachary Quinto as Spock, and not keep waiting for him to slice open someone's head to steal their super-power.  His is a younger, less controlled Spock, which is a tricky tight-rope to walk, but I think he pulls it off.  That he pulls it off with Leonard Nimoy in the film as well is that much more impressive.

The wild card was always Chris Pine as Kirk.  I never saw this guy in anything before.  Thankfully, he doesn't try to mirror Shatner's performance, but instead tries to capture the essense of the character as an authority-flouting hot head, who nontheless understands the nature of responsibility.

There are a number of small roles that are enjoyable as well. Ben Cross as Spock's father, Sarek.  Bruce Greenwood as the first captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike.  I particularly liked Faran Tahir as the captain of the ship in the opening sequence.  (You may remember him as a terrorist in "Iron Man".)  Sadly, Winona Ryder as Spock's mother was almost a throwaway role.  (I think she had four lines in the whole movie.)  Eric Bana's turn as Nero, a vengeful Romulan, is fine.  Neither bad nor praiseworthy.

The second way this is a reboot is that it looks NOTHING like any previous incarnation of Trek.  It's visually busy to nearly a distracting degree.  I don't see that as a negative, when the scene in question is a space battle.  The stately, uncomplicated way the ships would do their ballets in the TV shows and previous movies really seems old fashioned now.  (It seemed old fashioned in 1977, when "Star Wars" raised the bar on that kind of thing.) 

As for the story, it's all classic Trek stuff.  There's a distress call when the fleet is elsewhere, necessitating a brand-new ship filled with cadets go on a rescue mission.  (II and V)  There's a scenery-chewing foreigner as the bad guy.  (II, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX and X)  There's characters dealing with family loss.  (III, VI, VII)  There's Spock dealing with his humanity.  (I, IV, V)  There's a big, mysterious spacecraft menacing Earth.  (I, IV)  There's time travel.  (I, IV, VII, VIII)  There's even a much appreciated (and very subtle)nod to the oft-maligned "Star Trek Enterprise" series.

That brings us to the reboot portion of the story that is the most controversial.  This is a time travel story, true, but unlike almost every other one in the Trek universe, this one actually changes the past.  Kirk and Spock's lives (not to mention the lives of possibly everyone else in the universe) are changed by the actions of characters who arrive from the future.  The time line is never  "fixed", it remains now as the writers have rewritten it.  Now, they can revisit just about anything (V'Ger, Khan, the Klingon rapprochement, etc) but it can be different now, because of the meddling in the time stream.  Personally, I think that's pretty cool.  They haven't altered the universe THAT much.  Kirk is still Kirk.  Spock is still Spock.  But the Federation is now a somewhat different thing than it was.  (That detail I won't spoil for you.)  Talk about "boldly going".

I think Abrahms has done a remarkable thing, making Star Trek accessible to a new generation of folks, while still keeping true to the spirit of the original.  I look forward to seeing where the franchise goes from here.