Star Trek (The Movie) (Blu-ray)

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"Bones! Buckle up!"

Note: In the following review both John and Jason provide their opinion of the film, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, Extras, and Parting Thoughts.

The Film According to John:
Just "Star Trek."

Not "Star Trek: The Beginning" or "Star Trek 1" or "Star Trek 800." This movie assumes that nothing has gone before: no television shows, no movies, no comic books, no video games, no action figures.

It was a bold move on the part of director J.J. Abrams to go where no "Star Trek" episode had ever gone before. It was a fresh approach, equaling the successes of Richard Donner in "Superman: The Movie" and Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan in "Batman" and "Batman Begins" when those franchises seemed on the verge of extinction.

So let me say it up-front: "Star Trek" is one of the three or four most-entertaining films I saw in 2009.

Of course, taking "Star Trek" back to its start risked incurring the wrath of die-hard Trekkies and Trekkers, since it meant replacing the beloved original cast with younger actors. Many fans could not fathom anyone other than William Shatner as James T. Kirk or Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock or DeForrest Kelley as Dr. McCoy or James Doohan as Scotty, and so forth. New actors, no matter how good they might be, would surely be a sacrilege.

Well, they aren't a sacrilege. They work just fine. Not only do Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto make a fine young James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, but Karl Urban and Simon Pegg make an admirable Leonard McCoy and Montgomery Scott. Indeed, Bones and Scotty may have captured the essence of their characters better than anyone else in the cast, even if Pegg's character enters late and hasn't a lot to do.

Don't expect the new youngsters to be imitating their predecessors, though. I mean, don't figure on Pine making any patented Shatner staccato utterances. With the exception of Quinto's ears, some of Urban's mannerisms, and Pegg's Scottish accent, these new actors are their own persons. Speaking of which, Zoe Saldana as Uhura creates an even more dominant presence in the film than Nichelle Nichols did in the original, and John Cho as Lt. Sulu and Anton Yelchin as a seventeen-year-old Chekov do superb jobs as well. By the way, Ben Cross and Winona Ryder play Spock's parents, and weren't they just youngsters in "Chariots of Fire" and "Beetlejuice"?

Bruce Greenwood is more than acceptable as Captain Pike (you remember the character from the pilot episode of "Star Trek" back in the mid Sixties), but Eric Bana as the crazed, obsessed villain Nero makes less of an impression. Maybe it's because Nero doesn't look much different or behave much differently than all the other Romulans aboard his ship. When you can't tell one villainous character from another, it rather diminishes their evilness.

Yeah, there's a plot, too, but it's almost completely overshadowed by the introduction of the new characters. The fact is, going into this Blu-ray version of the movie, I couldn't remember much about the movie's story from seeing it in a theater some months earlier. Odd, no? It was a favorite film, but I couldn't remember what it was about. I'd say that's a tribute to the actors and their characterizations, which dominate the film.

No, the plot, which plays with revenge motives and time warps and alternate realities, is largely forgettable, secondary to the character studies. It's far more fun to watch a preteen Kirk almost driving himself over a cliff in a stolen 'vette, or his getting the crap beat out of him in a barroom brawl. It's more fun to see Bones as a recently divorced fellow with nowhere to go but space, which he hates. It's more fun to see Spock rebelling against his Vulcan heritage by enrolling in Starfleet Academy. It's more fun to see how Kirk and Bones hit it off almost immediately, while Kirk and Spock take an immediate dislike for one another. It's more fun to watch an unexpected relationship unfold between Spock and a crew member. And it's more fun to see Leonard Nimoy again.

What more, it's immensely fun to watch the spectacular, often stunning CGI visuals in this new "Star Trek," surely the most elaborate special effects ever created for any "Star Trek" episode (or any movie, period). It's also why Blu-ray high definition is a must for getting the most pleasure out of the film. I loved every action-filled and non-action-filled moment of it.

John's film rating: 8/10

The Film According to Jason:
While every effort has been made to avoid spoilers in the following review, certain plot points are discussed. Proceed at your own risk.

When it was announced the man behind "Mission Impossible III" and "Alias" would remake "Star Trek," fanboys howled. How can the legendary characters of James Kirk and Mr. Spock be played by anyone aside from William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy? Would canon and continuity be respected? In short, can the simply titled "Star Trek" be anything but a bastardization of the classic concept?

The short answer is yes. Yes in every way, shape and form. Gone is 40+ years of mind-boggling continuity (though shout-outs to nearly everything that came before are present). Gone is the technobabble which plagued the latter series. Gone are minor space battles and sets cobbled together from whatever is on the studio lot. Gone is the notion, most importantly, that the franchise is just for geeks. There's an excitement in the film from the very first frame with the way the camera moves and characters react, shouting as loud as it can that this is not your father's "Trek," as the television ad states.

This is a new universe to play in which is completely respectful of what has come before without being slavishly devoted to it. Beloved characters are seen in a different way, thanks to the script. They're not changed just for the sake of change; they've been reinvented to show more layers, more texture and more depth. The Enterprise hasn't been redesigned to sell toys. It's a functional vessel from top to bottom in a world unencumbered by the "rules" on how a particular scene should be shot or the limits of a physical model over CGI battles.

Romulan captain Nero (Eric Bana) is hell-bent on getting revenge on Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy), the person he blames for the loss of Romulus and his family. To that end, his futuristic mining vessel is outfitted with weapons and a substance called red matter…a destroyer of worlds. Moments before a preeminent world is destroyed and his sights are set on another, the newly commissioned U. S. S. Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) is dispatched to the scene. His crew compliment? A half-Vulcan, half-human commander named Spock (Zachary Quinto). Helm and navigation officers Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov (John Cho, Anton Yelchin). Newly minted doctor Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban). Communications expert Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana). And a brash cadet stowaway who butts heads with everyone by the name of James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine).

As imagined by J. J. Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, "Star Trek" is an epic film set in a universe reminiscent of everything that came before while, at the same time, very much different from it. As an example, Nero's Romulan vessel, the Narada, bears no similarity to any ship from that race, yet interior graphics and weapons retain a signature green hue. Starfleet ships utilize the standard main hull and nacelle structure, but the insides are more elaborate with towering pipes and monolithic engine rooms…in other words, a real world sensibility. The classic Starfleet arrowhead is modified; phaser beams are no longer reddish strings jutting out from the hull of the ship in favor of blasts of energy.

Simultaneously, this movie is both ambitious in scope while being concerned with the intimate details of the relationships at play. It's a structure no other "Trek" movie has successfully mastered; minor planets are usually at stake. Either because of budget limitations or the lack of story breadth, other big screen adventures weren't willing or able to do what this film does: pit the seemingly perfect crew against one another, forcing them to take sides in the context of the larger, universe-in-peril story. Because of a construct of that story, Abrams doesn't need to worry about protecting the sacred cows. Anything can, and does, happen. In fact, one event in particular is the catalyst for much of the drama between Kirk and Spock.

I should get my minor nitpicks out of the way first. Action sequences, especially the first one, are cut entirely too fast, full of whip pans and extreme close-ups making it nearly impossible to understand what's happening on the first viewing. Part of the problem is the look of the U. S. S. Kelvin; it's so fundamentally different from anything we've seen before, we have to get our bearings before the shooting starts. Abrams doesn't allow that establishing moment.

The direction is both a strength and a curse for "Star Trek." When the camera does an oddly canted move toward the Vulcan council a la the old "Batman" television show, a comic book-inspired shot is created while being disconcerting in a fresh, unique way. But when the same camera sits uncomfortably close to the actors in the first quarter of the film, we feel we're invading personal space. It's a different approach to the series, to be sure, and one that is reminiscent of "Battlestar Galactica."

Then there's the character of Scotty, played by Simon Pegg. Introduced halfway through the movie, he doesn't have much to do aside from a few cut away scenes. What's the point, exactly, of casting Pegg if there's nothing for him to do? (The same can't be said of the rest of the main cast: they all have a moment to shine, especially Sulu, who gets more meaningful screen time in this movie than he did in most of the character's previous outings.)

The major issue with the story is the seemingly overnight decision to have Kirk enlist in Starfleet after rebuffing Pike's overture. We can pretty much guess what goes through his mind; would a scene or two with his mother have been too much to ask? After all, Kirk is so resistant to the idea, going so far as to insult the captain in a bar, there needs to be some connective tissue to get the audience from A to B to make the change of heart organic.