Humanity Trumps Dazzling Effects in an Origins Prequel Not Exclusive to Trekkers

Rating: 8/10 (9 June 2009)

It's a little-known fact that none other than Lucille Ball is responsible for the birth of "Star Trek". As the titular head of Desilu Studios in the 1960's, she green-lit former LA cop Gene Roddenberry's idea of an intergalactic western and championed the series during its brief three-year run on NBC. It is amazing to consider how the franchise continues to thrive 43 years later, so much so that director J.J. Abrams ("Lost") and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have been able to re-imagine the legacy of the series without sacrificing the fidelity needed to satisfy the throngs of rabid fans who pushed the grosses north of the $200 million mark in its first week of release. As someone who is not remotely a Trekker, I have to admit the creators have done a fine job of reincarnating the familiar characters into their youthful counterparts and concocted an engaging, time-traversing plot that smartly avoids heavy exposition in favor of action and pyrotechnics. The result can be sometimes mind-numbing and trivial, but the 122-minute movie is never dull.
The densely populated plot throws us forward to the year 2233 (or backwards depending on your perspective on "Star Trek" lore) as the USS Kelvin confronts a major alien vessel captained by an embittered Romulan named Nero. An alternate timeline is revealed, and inevitable tragedies ensue. Years later, we meet the familiar characters from the TV series culminating in the USS Enterprise's maiden voyage. James Kirk is a cocksure hothead with obvious Starfleet Academy potential, but he is haunted by the father he never knew. The half-human, half-Vulcan Spock is a brilliant student-turned-control freak by his nature but sometimes unable to reconcile the two sides of his identity. Their initially hostile relationship provides much of the film's spark, as they one-up each other in face a common enemy in Nero. This provides a good excuse for the CGI-enhanced action sequences with a plethora of explosions and characters zooming in and out of frame. By the time you start to feel the excess and redundancy in this approach, the story wraps the viewer up in its core ethos - that the Enterprise crew is an extended rainbow coalition of a family even as entire civilizations are destroyed.
Abrams and crew are smart enough to recognize that the movie has to capture the heart of the original series in a way that doesn't patronize fans yet engage us non-Trekkers. Most of the casting choices are solid, although a couple of them are rather distracting. With the lightweight veneer of a tween idol, Chris Pine captures the braggadocio and roughhewn manner of a youthful Kirk in a way that tethers him to Shatner's real-life personality without doing an outright imitation of the elder actor. Even better is Zachary Quinto who has little latitude to vary Spock from fan expectation, yet he brings subtle but palpable currents of humanity to his stoic character. The rest of the crew is painted in broader strokes with Karl Urban coming closest to caricature as "Bones" McCoy; Anton Yelchin, laying on a thick, Cold War-era Russian accent as the extremely young Chekhov; and Simon Pegg ("Hot Fuzz") pulling out all the comedy stops as exiled engineer Scotty. Somewhat more subtle are Zoë Saldana ("Guess Who") as linguist specialist Uhuru, who has a surprising relationship with Spock, and John Cho ("Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle") showing that he can handle action sequences with dexterity as neophyte helmsman Sulu.
Covered with latex, Eric Bana is hardly recognizable as Nero, although he makes the most of his character's stock vengeance motives. It's genuinely odd, however, to see Tyler Perry ("Madea Goes to Jail") as the head of the Starfleet Academy and especially the still-doe-eyed Winona Ryder trying to look maternal as Spock's human-side mother. Among cinema's comic book franchises, this one is closer to "The Dark Knight" than "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on the quality scale. Visually, it doesn't disappoint with Daniel Mindel's dazzling, kinetic cinematography and Scott Chambliss' creative production design that mixes retro and futuristic elements seamlessly. At the same time, the convenient timeline jumble doesn't really give rise to any complex moral quandaries beyond the importance of building friendships and trusting your colleagues. Nonetheless, the movie is propulsive entertainment which doesn't tamper with its genesis and focuses squarely on the humanity of the familiar characters. For that accomplishment, we should all be grateful.