Star Trek (The Movie) (Theatrical)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

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 pre-eminent 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.)