Star Trek...Rebooted!

Rating: 8/10 (26 August 2009)

The original STAR TREK series was a TV landmark. The series ran only 3 seasons, but is now perhaps the most cult of all series of all time! Grounded in character, ideas, and stories, it is a classic. Can you re-create that magic? Yes, with STAR TREK 2009! Thanks primarily goes to TV creator J. J. Abrams (LOST, ALIAS), who directed this exciting, smart, fast-paced, thrilling adventure film.
A Romulan ship, the Narada, comes from the future. The ship's captain, Nero, played with appropriate Star Trek villainy by the excellent Eric Bana (MUNICH), is looking for Ambassador Spock. Nero destroys the USS Kelvin in his search and kills the Captain, but not before its First Officer George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) makes the ultimate sacrifice by remaining on the ship to allow escape shuttles to get away. Kirk's wife (played by HOUSE's Jennifer Morrison) is having a baby and they name him James Tiberius Kirk.
Flash forward: we see how Kirk and Spock grow up on their respective planets and end up at Starfleet Academy. Kirk is played by Chris Pine and Spock by Zachary Quinto and both these actors are revelations in these iconic roles! I had SERIOUS doubts going in, but they both sold me! Pine captures Kirk's bravado and cheekiness, while Quinto channels Spock's inner turmoil of being half-Vulcan, half-human. But neither is quite the Kirk and Spock we all know from the TOS because this is their EARLY story when both just are finishing up at Starfleet, so we get to see doubt, uncertainty and youthful indiscretion from the two men.
On the way to Starfleet, Kirk meets fellow cadets Dr. Leonard McCoy (an astonishingly good Karl Urban, who both looks, acts, and sounds like DeForrest Kelley!) and Uhura (a perky, but underused Zoe Saldana, who I found to be the really only annoying and unconvincing replacement; Saldana reminds me NOTHING of Nichelle Nichols!). Three years into their Starfleet training, the almost-officers are all commissioned early aboard the newly christened USS Enterprise due to reports of a mysterious ship destroying planets (Nero's Narada of course!). Captain Christopher Pike (excellent work by great veteran actor Bruce Greenwood) christens the Enterprise on its maiden voyage/mission and makes Spock his First Officer. Kirk had to sneak on board due to being on academic probation for suspicion of cheating on the infamous Kobayashi Maru test! At the piloting and navigation controls are Lt. Sulu (solid John Cho) and Ensign Chekov (winningly played by Anton Yelchin).
Nero orders Pike to board the Narada the same way he ordered the Kelvin Captain 25 years earlier, but Pike has Kirk, Sulu, and another officer to chute down to Vulcan to destroy Nero's detonating drill that is to deploy the matter that will destroy Vulcan. Kirk and Sulu survive, but can't destroy the drill and are beamed back up. Spock beamed down to save his parents and the Council, but his mother didn't make it and now he is conflicted. Kirk has a plan to stop Nero and save Pike, but Spock won't listen, Kirk defies orders, and Spock has him put on a Starfleet outpost on an ice planet.
On the planet, Kirk finds none other than Ambassador Spock from TOS! Leonard Nimoy, who created one of the most unique, memorable characters in TV history, resumes the role of Mr. Spock here to great effect! He explains to young Kirk that Nero's arrival 25 years ago created an alternate timeline and that he must return to take command of the Enterprise, his destiny. Spock created "red matter" to destroy a Supernova aimed for Romulus. Too late to save the planet, he still deployed the matter to destroy the nova, but instead the matter-nova combination created a time portal which shot The Narada and Spock's ships into the past (The Narada 25 years earlier than Spock). Nero, after destroying the Kelvin, waited for Spock, put him on the ice planet so he could see Vulcan destroyed.
Kirk and old Spock find the station and meet Montgomery Scott (played with hilarity by the wonderful Simon Pegg from SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ), a Starfleet Engineer stationed on the ice planet. Old Spock informs Scotty that he created the formula for Transwarp drive and so Scotty uses it to beam Kirk and himself to the Enterprise, where Kirk compels young Spock to relinquish command due to his emotional conflict. Now, with Kirk the Captain, the crew brainstorms and forms the plan to take down Nero.
The thing that I like about this reboot is that anything can happen now! It has effectively changed a lot of things in the Star Trek universe, so that this new series is no longer confined to the universe of TOS or any of its sequels. It's not your daddy's Star Trek! The casting choices are really uncanny. As a stand alone film, STAR TREK 2009 is a nonstop thrill ride. You barely have time to breathe, but yet somehow you still are able to connect just enough to these iconic characters and feel for them.
I did have a few questions about some potential inconsistencies in the the alternate reality and my knowledge of TOS, but it's entirely possible that the alternate reality that Nero created 25 years earlier can explain some most, if not all, these things. I still say that STAR TREK 2009 works!