Star Trek Torpedoes the Competition

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2009)

Trekkies rejoice! After nearly a decade of languishing on the sidelines while the Star Wars franchise enjoyed a grand resurgence courtesy of a string of prequels, Star Trek fans finally get the rejuvenation they've been waiting for. In fairness, the last two Star Trek features, 1998's Insurrection and 2002's Nemesis, were not nearly as bad as reputation would lead one to believe, and the latter was in fact quite good. Be that as it may, both were big disappointments at the box office, and with the TV series Enterprise fading away sooner than expected, many longtime fans feared the voyages of the Starship Enterprise were at an end.
Not so! The new Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, is a galvanizing reboot of the long-running franchise that is making big waves with old-school Trekkies and new fans alike. Taking a cue from Star Wars, the filmmakers have taken Star Trek back to its roots to tell the story of how the legendary Captain James Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. "Bones" McCoy, and their supporting cast were all thrown into the maelstrom together for the first time. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman carry out this difficult assignment with admirable respect for the many storytellers who have come before, and develop the characters and plot lines that are an integral part of Star Trek lore with great care and attention to detail, and Star Trek is full of many subtle (and not-so-subtle) homages to past films from the series.
It goes without saying that in terms of visual extravaganza, the new film blows away all of the previous Trek movies. Special effects have evolved exponentially since the first attempted reboot of the saga with 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the numerous aliens, space battles, and fantasy sets all possess an enhanced level of visual spectacle. Director Abrams manipulates all the action and drama to great effect, and if he is clearly determined to pay his respects to the movies that have paved the way for his film, he is nonetheless unafraid of taking the story in bold new directions.
But a movie dealing with so many well-loved characters whose individual personalities are indispensable to the Star Trek experience couldn't succeed without some great casting. After all, William Shatner *is* Captain Kirk; Leonard Nimoy *is* Spock. How could anyone else fill their shoes with any credibility? Thankfully, the casting is near-perfect. Chris Pine has perhaps the biggest challenge of all the cast, playing the immortal James T. Kirk, but pulls it off with aplomb and brings to the part all the unconventionality and love of adventure which a young Kirk should have. Praiseworthy as Pine's performance is, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban are even more impressive as Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, respectively, so much so that it's honestly hard to imagine any actors doing a better job unless somebody actually cloned Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley. Both men nail their roles with unerring accuracy. The rest of the cast is for the most part outstanding as well, including John Cho as Mr. Sulu, Simon Pegg as Scotty, and Zoe Saldana as a very sexy Lt. Uhura. The only question mark is Anton Yelchin's Mr. Chekhov—not only does he not look the part, his version of the character is written very differently from the original. But overall, the casting is remarkable.
None of which is to say that Star Trek is flawless. There are some curious liberties taken with the space-time continuum, and the plot relies upon some conceits which don't necessarily hold up well upon reflection. More glaringly, the film's antagonist, a crazy Romulan called Nero, is a rather generic sci-fi villain who, while serving the plot well, doesn't hold a candle to his obvious inspiration, the great Khan from Star Trek II. That film is surely the best of all Star Trek movies, followed by the likes of The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country, and First Contact. But if it's not the very best in the cycle, Star Trek is certainly a very good all-round adventure film, and one that has restored the luster to one of the genre's most influential series.