After the critical and commercial failure of ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’, the Star Trek franchise pretty much went into decline. The latest Trek TV series at the time, ‘Enterprise’, was canceled in 2005 due to low ratings. Just like around the time before the first Trek film came out, ‘Star Trek’ just faded into the background for most of the first decade of the 21st century. But then, in 2009, director J.J. Abrams (in only his second directorial effort, having been mainly known for his work on television at that point) brought the series back to relevance with his reboot/pseudo-prequel. It’s a pseudo-prequel in the sense that while it is the story of how the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise came together, this new Star Trek takes the bold new route of creating an alternate universe while still establishing that the original Trek universe still exists. The end result is not only one of the most exciting sci-fi films in recent years, but a film that also does a fantastic job at reimagining the Star Trek franchise.
In this new Star Trek universe, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) starts out as a reckless and brash rebel who never knew his father George (Chris Hemsworth, pre-Thor), who sacrificed his life to save hundreds of lives, including James and his mother; James being born just before his father’s death. When he is approached by Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to enlist in Starfleet, the same organization Kirk’s father was a member of, Kirk does end up joining but three years later, he comes into conflict with Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto), a Vulcan who struggles to deal with his half-human/half-Vulcan heritage. As Kirk and Spock try to work together as they become crew-members on the U.S.S. Enterprise, the new Enterprise crew must deal with a dangerous villain; an angry Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) from the future (whose actions created the new alternate timeline) who vows revenge on Starfleet for the future destruction of his home-world of Romulus and more importantly, Spock. For it was Spock who, in the future, promised the Romulans he would protect their home world from destruction. But, as it has turned out, he did not succeed.
This new Star Trek is one of those rare films where it not only appeals to fans of the series, but it also works for those who aren’t Star Trek fans (I can certainly account for this, being in the latter group when I first saw the film). In fact, the film actually feels like it’s more suited to non-Trek fans. According to writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, they wanted to inject some of Star Wars’ ‘rock-and-roll’ style into Trek, which to them felt more like ‘Classical Music’. When watching this film, it’s clear they did what they wanted to do. In fact, a lot of shots and ideas in this film do feel like they have been lifted from Star Wars; and all of this before Abrams was even hired to direct ‘Episode VII’. This is certainly much different from what longtime Trek fans were used to, but the film is exciting, sleek, and bold. The whole idea of the filmmakers creating a whole new alternate universe is risky, but it does work in the sense that it allows them to explore new stories without having to stay confined to the original series’ canon.
Casting is pretty much perfect, with each member of the cast stepping into their shoes of their predecessors quite well. Both Pine and Quinto are excellent as the new Kirk and Spock, respectively. Pine’s version of Kirk is very much reminiscent of Han Solo, as he’s the brash rebel who soon matures into the Captain of the Enterprise. As for Quinto as Spock, the writers do a great job at focusing on this Spock’s conflict of being half-human and half-Vulcan. There’s also a nice nod to the original series with the addition of Leonard Nimoy as an older version of Spock. It works because it’s not distracting and the inclusion of Nimoy also helps in strengthening the relationship between Kirk and Spock, which is the major focus of the movie. The two start out not liking each other, but as they mature they soon become the friends that we know them to be in the future.
Aside from Pine and Quinto, the rest of the cast is also great as well, and the writers did a good job at giving each key crew-member of the Enterprise a good amount of screen-time and more importantly show why they belong on the Enterprise. Uhura (Zoe Saldana), who actually wasn’t given much to do in the original series, is now the third most important character in the film, which is partially emphasized through her relationships with both Kirk and Spock, acting rather coldly to the former at first and actually being in a relationship with the latter. Uhura’s more substantial role in the film means that McCoy (Karl Urban) doesn’t play as big of a part as ‘Bones’ has had in previous Trek films, but Urban is actually probably the closest to his predecessor, DeForest Kelley. He just nails every detail about the character perfectly, from the attitude to, of course, how Bones and Spock don’t always get along. The way the writers implement Scotty (Simon Pegg) into the crew is well-done, and Pegg does a great job in the role, which pretty much has him be the comic relief. Finally, when regarding Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho), they’re actually probably the least important of the main Enterprise crew, but the writers still give them enough to do in the film. Sulu in particular has an awesome action scene where he gets to show off his fencing talents.
If I did have one complaint about the film, it is that the main villain Nero is admittedly a rather weak Star Trek villain. This is mainly due to how his plan plays out in the film. So, in the future where he came from, the planet of Romulus was destroyed by a star that went supernova. Nero and the future Spock get caught up in a wormhole which sends them back in time; in Nero’s case, his appearance is responsible for creating the new alternate universe. Rather than warning Romulus about the planet’s impending doom, he just waits for at least two decades for the future Spock to arrive so that he can have him suffer the same way he did (Spoilers: in this new universe, the planet of Vulcan is destroyed). Eric Bana is fine as Nero, but the character needed a stronger plan. But, this film is mainly focused on the relationship between Kirk and Spock, so while the main villain is a weak one, it’s understandable as to why it is how it is and it doesn’t really affect the movie that much.
While great reboots are sometimes hard to come by, this new Star Trek greatly exceeds expectations and stands toe to toe with some of the best Star Trek films ever. Even with the risky move of creating an alternate timeline, the writing is superb, the cast is excellent, and the movie is a bold, sleek, and stylish new take on Star Trek. Kudos to Abrams for bringing the Star Trek franchise back to prominence after it sort of faded out following ‘Star Trek Nemesis’. This is how the Star Wars prequels should have turned out. After all, this does actually kind of feel like ‘Star Wars’ in certain areas. But as the next evolution of Star Trek, it does its job of not just appealing to Trek’s longtime fans, but it’s also a great introduction for someone like me who went in not knowing a damn thing about Star Trek. Not only is it one of the best Star Trek films ever, but it has quickly become one of my favorite films of all time.
Rating: 5/5!
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