Edge of your seat popcorn pleaser... and much, much more

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2009)

It's difficult to find all the superlatives to describe this latest in the long, stored history of Star Trek films, but let's try, shall we? Awesome - simply awesome. There we go. I feel better now. I was and am completely blown away by this movie and I haven't really been blown away by any movie, let alone a Star Trek movie, in a long while.
J.J. Abrams has not so much reinvented the Star Trek series as he has brought completely new and, in my opinion, quite amazing creative energy into a series that has long been in the doldrums. You know Star Trek is in a funk when there are movies in the series that you haven't even heard of and least of all care about (ST: Nemesis, anyone?).
Everything - well, almost everything - is completely new: Actors, design, feel, ships - everything is fresh and new and every note perfect, brilliant, and wonderful. There are no lost moments, no missed cues, no wasted screen time. Abrams is pitch-perfect here.
The most revealing thing to me about his style is that he is very good at creating both character and story. If you were to compare him and Michael Bay, for example - both have a really solid sense of action and style - but whereas Bay feels more like a schlock auteur with a $200 million budget - Abrams creates relatable and interesting characters AND fantastic action with the same budget.
Will the same crowd that saw "Star Trek" go to see "Transformers 2?" Of course. Big Robots and Megan Fox - what's not to like? - but the contrasts in film-making style and depth will become all the more obvious once we see them both. The "Transformers" series is great in the sense that is fun and Bay definitely has command of the editing and crowd-pleasing action and effects - but, all that said, his depth is limited. Ultimately his chosen stories feel somewhat weightless and silly.
Chris Pine as James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock are the linchpins of this movie and possibly the new series as it literally takes flight. Zoe Saldana as Uhuru, Karl Urban as Bones, Simon Pegg as Scotty (perfect!), Anton Yelchin as Chekhov (also perfect!) - man, they're all really, really great and Abrams is clearly pushing great performances out of all the actors here. But Pine and Quinto are the keys here - just very, very good and confident as they make these legendary characters their own.
Let me not fail to mention Eric Bana as the rebel Romulan Captain Nero - frankly I did not even recognize him (not terribly hard given the makeup) - who was also very, very good. He really chewed the role up well.
Much as "The Empire Strikes Back" is the benchmark of the Star Wars series, the benchmark of the Star Trek movies is without exception considered to be "The Wrath of Khan" but Abrams may have one-upped that series classic (series sentimentalists notwithstanding). In relative terms one feels the weight of Ricardo Montalban's and William Shatner's tendency to melodrama more contrasted with the acting that is as good, but more subtle in this new Star Trek. Pine's Kirk is very much his own man - and let's be honest it takes a LOT to put the weight of Shatner's Kirk on your shoulders - but I like his style and abilities here. He has all the swagger and self-confidence that is needed to take on the role of James Tiberius Kirk.
The difficulty here I suppose will be how does one maintain the quality of the series now that it has been officially "rebooted?" That will be the challenging part as I'm sure eventually Abrams will step away from helming new movies. How does one prevent a certain degree of boredom with the characters, the stories, the world that tends to come with a long series (read: James Bond)? It will surely be a challenge but not one I'd care to contemplate now as I'd much rather savor the greatness of this new Star Trek.