Rating of
3.5/4
Boldy Going Strong After All These Years
Chris Kavan - wrote on 05/09/09
Can you believe it's been 40 years since we first heard "Space, the final frontier..." Through movies and various series (some better than others), Star Trek has been the sci-fi to set the standard. I'm not a hardcore Trekkie - I like Next Generation, not the original series so much, but was always more of a Star Wars fan. I guess that's why I think this reboot of the venerable franchise works so well.
J. J. Abrams takes a relatively unknown cast, a well-known universe and packs it with the right mix of action and emotion to give a much-needed kick in the pants to a flagging series. Like many people, I was skeptical that this cast would have chops to replace that indelible image of the original cast, but I was pleasantly surprised with the result. In particular Zachary Quinto (who will always be Sylar to me) made an excellent Spock. He has the Vulcan cold logic, but when that hot-headed human emotion side came out, it really came out. Kudos to holding his own with the prime Leonard Nimoy.
The other cast members also hold their own. Chris Pine plays Kirk with a good mix of bravado, womanizing and heart. Simon Pegg is excellent (if not on screen enough) as Scotty. Karl Urban gives "Bones" McCoy a world (space?)-weary charm and exasperation. Zoe Saldan is intelligent and sexy as Uhura. Rounding out the cast John Cho and Anton Yelchin do a serviceable jobs with Sulu and Chekov.
The cast is set, the action follows. The space battles seem more exciting this time around. Whether it's effects catching up just a better handle on the action, this Star Trek seems more intense than previous outings. They even throw in a few monsters to spice things up.
The story line is where the most problems come into being. The villain (Eric Bana) comes from the future (along with Spock) in order to correct a future genocide. This, of course, means he plans to destroy the Federation. By doing so, he alters the timeline, thus negating "canon" Trek and replacing it with an alternate universe (where a bunch of different stuff can happen). I don't get bogged down by the minutia - but I can see why people may be up in arms over the whole time-travel idea.
Still, story quibble aside, this is a fun, exciting film. To appease the legions of fans, they have many nods to the original - lines, character traits, red shirts - and probably other details I'm missing. Despite changing some things around, I think they're on the right course to bring Star Trek back as a sci-fi juggernaut.
