Although I am not much of a fan of any of the Star Trek television series, I have seen and enjoyed most of the movie franchise, including all of “the original series” (TOS) cast. Of those movies, Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan was easily the best and is one of my favorite movies. Other movies in the series were mostly good. When I saw the initial preview and trailer, I was pretty excited, but a little concern it would be overdone.
J.J. Abrams, the creator of the hit TV show Lost took on the challenge to get the franchise going again and choose to go with the TOS characters. Like so many other series reboots, this new Star Trek is an origins story. The lives of the two most prominent characters, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and its 1st officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), are the focus as each are seen in pivotal moments of their pre-Starfleet development. The former, it is revealed is the wise-ass, devil-may-care son of a heroic Starfleet officer who died at the time of his birth. Spock on the other hand, is brilliant but conflicted as half-Vulcan and half-human trying to reconcile his mixed heritage.
After three years of hi-jinx and accusations of cheating, Kirk and his Starfleet Academy classmates are rushed to action in defense of the planet Vulcan. Kirk, is not to be part of the mission, but Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban)is able to get Kirk aboard. As it would happen Kirk understands what is going on and a reluctant Uhura (Zoë Saldana) who rebuffed Kirk’s many advances, confirms it. Enterprise captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who challenged Kirk to join Starfleet, assigns him, Sulu (John Cho) and the chief engineer Olson, who perishes, to destroy a gigantic Romulan space drill that is puncturing Vulcan. Ultimately, Kirk and Sulu are not successful in stopping the Romulans in time, causing a surprising event that clearly shows this is an alternative universe than TOS. The villainous Romulans are actually from the future and have a vendetta against Spock.
After returning to the bridge, Kirk is exiled to a frozen planet by Spock, who at this point is commanding the ship with Capt. Pike captured by the Romulans. Continuing a series of coincidences that would make a Spider-Man screenwriter blush, Kirk is discovered by an elder Spock (credited as Spock Prime and played by Leonard Nimoy). Spock explains why the Romulans from the future are here, taking blame for failing to save their planet. Kirk and Spock then discover Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg), stuck at a remote facility nearby and find their way back to the Enterprise, without Spock Prime. Kirk, armed with the knowledge that he has to take over the Enterprise, succeeds and leads the ship into a final confrontation with the Romulans.
The movie was okay, but the aforementioned coincidences make it hard to take seriously, almost as much as yet another time travel story in the Star Trek universe. By my count, this is at least the third time there has been time travel in the series. While it avoids the predestination paradox problems that plague the Terminator series, it makes everything possible and thus nothing impossible. To me, that takes away suspense and gives the filmmakers a convenient out. That holds it back from being in the same league as Star Trek II. The space battles, like most since Return of the Jedi, are so overdone that they remove most suspense.
The performances are solid if unspectacular for the most part. Uhura has a larger part than in the series and has a surprising romance. Pegg plays Scotty mostly for laughs while Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu are just fine. Pine avoids playing William Shatner playing Capt. Kirk, but generally does nothing distinctive. Eric Bana is fine as the Romulan villain. Greenwood is strong in the role of Capt. Pike, as is Chris Hemsworth as Kirk’s father in the film’s first scene. In a way, the Jim Kirk is the least impressive captain in the movie. Of course, he is just 22 at the time, so we can expect that he will grow into it in subsequent movies.
The highlight of the film is Spock; Quinto plays him perfectly – getting the look, tone and overall feel down perfectly. Quinto makes Spock his own character without impersonating Nimoy. In many ways, the logical and hardly emotional Spock is the most important character of Star Trek and Quinto just nails it.
Other notes — The Enterprise was built in Iowa? And when did Iowa get cliffs? Also, product placement is still alive and well in the 23rd century apparently. Good to see Kirk getting it on with a green chick too.
Overall, the movie was good popcorn cinema, but at best finishes only as high as third in the whole series, in addition to Star Trek II, I think Star Trek VI was better.
