Star Trek - Review

Point of View Reviews
Star Trek - Review
By David Kirkeby
Jun 17, 2009, 21:59 PST

Image courtesy of Paramont Pictures

In the wake of Star Wars, every motion picture studio looked to replicate George Lucas’ massive hit with their own big budget sci-fi opus. It was this environment that finally convinced the film industry that Star Trek: The Motion Picture would be a viable project. Although Star Trek first aired on TV in 1966, it would not make its way to the big screen until 1979, two years after Star Wars. Since then, the Star Trek franchise has spawned eleven films in total.

The newest film in the Star Trek universe is a prequel detailing the early days of James T. Kirk and his crew, which brings the Trek universe full circle. The Star Trek films have never had the best special effects in the industry, but the franchise made up for this shortcoming by focusing on interesting characters and provoking subject matter. The newest film, simply entitled Star Trek, happily does not continue this trend. The movie is a visual spectacle; candy for the eyes.

While I enjoyed many of the performances in this incarnation of the Enterprise, the villain, Nero (Eric Bana) is a disappointment. Ricardo Montalban’s portrayal of Khan in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan set the bar for all Star Trek villains incredibly high, but even without comparing Nero to Khan or other Star Trek villains, Nero is just not that interesting. His motivation for a plan of destruction covering a quarter of century are ridiculous.

A small problem with the movie for me, is its opening sequence. The beginning of the film is pure melodrama. George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) fights Nero all by himself while his wife goes into labor. Luckily this part of the film is short lived, and the majority of the cast has better chemistry than James T. Kirk’s mother and father.

In many ways Star Trek is a reboot of the franchise, but it also works as Star Trek XI. Director J.J. Abrams treats the existing Star Trek universe with respect. The film’s screenplay tosses out references to other Star Trek films and TV shows to the delight of Trekkies everywhere. The crew that crafted this particular Star Trek film understood that since Star Trek already had an established universe, they couldn't just toss it all away and restart the story of the Enterprise. The film works especially well by acknowledging what had been done before, and then building upon it, albeit along a slightly changed timeline.

The only actor who returns in this Star Trek from previous installations of the franchise, is Leonard Nimoy, who plays Spock. However, all of the young actors end up channeling the Star Trek characters we know surprisingly well. In one great scene, Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) and young Spock (Zachary Quinto) come face to face. Quinto does not look like he is impersonating Nimoy, but rather as though he is looking straight into the long heritage of the Star Trek universe.

This film insures that the USS Enterprise will see many more adventures in the future. It is clear that the new cast is filled with popular movie stars, including Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine, but I hope we also see more of Simon Pegg, as Montgomery Scott, in sequels. Pegg is more than just comic relief. He adds energy to the film. In films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Pegg has perfected the portrayal of the average man. He is the only character in Star Trek that seems as amazed by the events in the film, as he should be.

It’s easy to compare this prequel to the three Star Wars prequels, but I don’t really want to. Expectations were so high for The Phantom Menace that no film could ever have lived up to the audience's expectations. This new Star Trek film brought life back to a franchise that seemed almost dead after Star Trek: Nemesis, its prior installment, and although J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek does borrow elements from Star Wars, it is not a Star Wars film. Instead, it remains firmly rooted in Gene Roddenberry's classic Star Trek universe.