Good sequel, better reboot, all-around triumph

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2013)

Star Trek is a series that could keep going forever. It has seen so many incarnations, between television, movies, comic books, and the like, and each bit has added just a little bit more to the vast canon that makes it up. So rebooting a series such as this- returning to the crew that started it all- was sure to be a difficult task. Enter writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and director J.J. Abrams with a fantastic idea to not only reboot the series, but to create a sequel to it as well, to pay homage to the immense canon that came before but give the franchise a future free of adhering directly to it. With this they were able to create a fantastic film that captures the heart and camaraderie that always lay at the heart of Trek, and a great sci-fi action flick to boot.
Star Trek begins as a sequel, with a Romulan vessel piloted by the mysterious Captain Nero (Eric Bana) arriving out of a black hole in front of the USS Kelvin. They immediately attack and cripple the ship, leaving first officer George Kirk (a not-yet-Thor Chris Hemsworth) in command with his wife (Jennifer Morrison) giving birth to their son. They are tragically torn apart when Kirk must take the Kelvin on a collision course with the Romulan ship; the last sounds he hears are his infant son, whom they decide to name James.
The film spends its first hour growing with- and exploring the dynamic between- James Kirk and Mr. Spock (Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto). Abrams and his team assembled a brilliant cast here, the heart and soul of which are these two characters. Pine and Quinto do more than just impressions of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy- though there are clearly hints of the two in their performances- but they strive to truly connect as Kirk and Spock, be they friends or adversaries as the film continues. Pine and Quinto take the immeasurable mantle of these two characters and they wear it incredibly well- fantastic performances both.
The rest of the crew rounds out and is introduced as the film goes on- from Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Bones (Karl Urban). Each of the cast members does a great job in their respective roles, particularly Urban as Bones, who steals every scene he is in. Less effective is Simon Pegg as Scotty- he is a great actor and adds some good comic relief, but his Scotty is less an engineering genius than a sideshow. The film needed some comedy, and between Bones and Kirk it has plenty- Pegg's Scotty practically grinds the film to a halt every time he is on the screen.
Another weakness of the film is Bana's Nero, who is an utterly dis-interesting character and a lackluster villain. While his anger over the destruction of Romulus is understandable, and his motivation fitting, he gets little to no development. What happens to him after the destruction of the Kelvin? How does he know what happens to Spock and where to find him? Too much of his story ends up on the cutting room floor, and it's a shame. Five more minutes of screen time exploring Nero would have benefited the film greatly.
Despite these minor flaws, however, the film is a triumph. Beautiful special effects and spectacular actions sequences, and a small role for Leonard Nimoy as the time-traveling Ambassador Spock- this film quite literally has it all, tie-ins and homages to old Trek while paving a new path for itself. Particular credit has to go to Abrams and his screenwriters for focusing so strongly on character, and the interactions between them. At its core, Star Trek is as much about going "where no one has gone before" as it is about the limits within all of us- indeed, our very human nature. More than that, Abrams has taken a franchise that once alienated all but its hardcore viewers and made it something accessible to a massive audience- and from here, Star Trek has no limits. Truly, the franchise will now go where it has never gone before, and a new generation can grow up with Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise in the same way their grandparents did.