Star Trek
May 10, 2009
3.5 stars out of 5
J.J. Abrams, creator of TV's Lost, writer of Mission Impossible III, has done a number on the Star Trek franchise, but I'm OK with that. Confession time: I watched the series avidly when it first aired in the 60s, and occasionally in reruns. I liked The Next Generation, but never watched an entire episode of any of the other TV series. I have seen every Star Trek movie, some of them twice. I know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars, but am not, at heart, a canon-loving Fanboy. You want to mess with Gene Rodenberry's sacred time line, that's fine with me. All you have to do is acknowledge you're doing it, and be entertaining.
This film does both. Frankly, when I heard it would feature Spock and Kirk at Starfleet academy, I was expecting a "Goodbye Mr. Chips" sort of romp through their undergraduate years together. There's a tiny bit of that, but basically, they are dragooned into service pretty early on, and for the rest of the film, they're cadets running the Enterprise under the worst possible circumstances.
Of course the explanation for the departure from Star Trek holy writ, "a rift in the space time continuum caused by a black hole" is rapidly becoming one of the most over-used tropes in all of science fiction, but there you are. At least they took the trouble to explain why things were different. And I, for one, applaud the judicious use of Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime (that is, the older Spock), not just in a cameo, but to advance the plot.
The writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman stayed true to the important things about Star Trek--the interpersonal dynamics, the teamwork, the sense of optimism. I think Gene Roddenberry would proud.
Lots of shaky cam. Lots of shiny new lights. The Enterprise finally looks like a 21st century starship. And, at last, it is HUGE inside. Perhaps a few too many scenes of people running down the hallyway, but I'm OK with that. And Kirk clawing his way back from a ledge--interesting once, funny the second time, but a bit much the third time. These, however, are nits. The film hits all the right notes, and despite being too long at two hours, is unflaggingly entertaining.