Rating of
3.5/4
A Reboot Worth Seeing
MovieMike - wrote on 12/22/11
Captain’s log: Star date 62850.5. The Federation has returned to the big screen yet again to the amazement of all but the most hardcore Star Trek fans. This current course has taken us well beyond the known limits of any franchise or character in cinema history. The latest submission, simply titled ‘Star Trek’, is nothing short of a reinvention of the vehicle originally envisioned by Gene Rodenberry. Being the eleventh feature-length film based on that original TV series; you’d think that all of the possible story lines had been exhausted. The last offering in 2002, ‘Nemesis’, did just over $43 million at the box office (American receipts) – lowest of all the preceding Trek films; a strong indicator that most folks were Trekked-out. Yet Paramount saw fit to gamble one more time.
Thanks to the writing efforts of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (their credits include ‘Eagle Eye’), along with the intense direction of JJ Abrams (‘Cloverfield and TV’s ‘Lost’), we get a totally revamped look and feel of the Enterprise saga. There are still key elements in place to attract the veteran fans; but this installment has been amped up in the action department to attract the younger, thrill seeking, movie crowds. Advanced CGI also ratchets up the visuals above that of the last few films that featured the crew from the ‘The Next Generation’, which were not much more than what the TV series offered.
As to the story line itself, we get drawn back to the very beginning of where James T. Kirk and the Enterprise crew of that 60’s TV series are first thrown together – so much for running out of storylines, eh? There are some twists and liberties taken in tracing both Kirk and Spock’s adolescence and their transition into Federation service; but Orci and Kurtzman never stray too far, lest they risk fooling with the recipe that is cherished almost as much as the one held by KFC. The other element that seems to have breathed life into this aging franchise is the use of levity in key places. This reminded me a bit more of the original series, as the TNG shows and films all seemed to be a bit more weighted down.
This new film does take on a look not unlike something along the lines of ‘Transformers’, and does seem to spend more time with action sequences as opposed to plot development. I found the movie to be mostly satisfying for pure entertainment, but I did have a problem with the story itself. Yet again, the writers have turned back to the gimmick of time-travel for the third time in the film series. In doing so, they’ve created an opportunity to point this collection of characters in a whole new direction; unbound by the events the (older) audience had come to be familiar with and would have dictated all of the Enterprise crews’ individual futures. I know this is all science fiction (heavy emphasis on fiction here) but a cohesive story line might have been better in the long run.
While all the actors that make up the core of the original series characters delivered as expected, I found Chris Pine (Kirk) to be a bit too brooding. Zachary Quinto gives an excellent rendition of a younger Spock; but I think its Karl Urban (McCoy) and Simon Pegg (Scotty) who steal a disproportionate amount of the show. Zoe Saldana does a very provocative turn as Uhura, and gives that character more depth than had ever been delivered in the series or films. Eric Bana’s Nero, who is the villain here, looks and sounds sinister enough, but the character’s back story is thin and the audience is not given enough reason to fear or loathe the Romulan. Ricardo Montalbán’s Kahn filled that roll better.
All in all, ‘Star Trek’ delivers where it counts. As I stated earlier, I had taken issue with some of the story line, and the film does drag a bit about ¾ of the way through (despite the higher action level); but I think there is enough to satisfy both the old and the newer ‘Trekkies’. This installment proves this franchise still has ‘legs’ and, in the capable hands of folks like Orci, Kurtzman and Abrams, could see at least a few more installments. Ensign, lay in a course for more big-screen magic, warp factor 7, and engage!
