An enjoyable new visioning.

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2010)

I went the opening day to see Star Trek with my dad, both of us being great fans of Gene Roddenberry's masterpiece of social commentary and adventurous storytelling. It has been said that ST'09 removes a good 40+ years of Star Trek canon. firstly, not including this outing, the original cast adventures (which this film is based upon) technically only makes for little more than ten years of the Star Trek longevity; Three for the original series, two for the animated series (which is constantly being debated as actually being canon or not), seven films based around the original cast if one includes Generations, and the handful of canonical books Roddenberry himself wrote. But I digress; onto the film itself:
With all honesty, I was hooked into the movie from the first minute. While the opening approach of ST'09 introduces newcomers to the Trek universe, as the final shots of the opening scene brought back the emotional impact of The Search For Spock's moral: "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". ST'09 however, brings this to what is possibly an even more , as we see what is amusingly fitting as the birth of James Tiberius Kirk. From then on, the film works the Star Trek magic with superb character interaction, lead by Chris Pine's spot-on Young Kirk, Zachary Quinto's fascinating if somewhat reverse portrayal of Spock, and the return of the unforgettable Leonard Nemoy; moving cinematography, which opens your mind and intrigues your heart at the same time; and an impressive orchestral score that stands among the best in all of Star Trek's musical history. the story itself is fascinating as well, and never reveals itself too early; instead, the film keeps us watching more and more with the progression of each scene.
And yes, there are the nods to the pop-culture knowledge of Star Trek (Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not ...), but there is even more than that. Various canonical elements of the series is not only brought back to fill in some story-associated gaps, but to further the impact of the film's sense of canon with the fans. I won't go into them here (partially because IMDb's word limit restricts it), but all of these elements come forth in the film to not so much create a new Star Trek for people to follow, but to make the Roddenberry-created universe even more full. Granted, Abrams had previously said that he was originally not a fan of Star Trek, but there is simply too much of Star Trek here to disregard all the previous adventures,(perhaps unwittingly) keeping the original canon intact.
Of course, nothing is without its problems, certainly not a Star Trek film. the inherit problem of this outing is that, while it is based upon the original series, the style of film-making and story-telling used here is quite dissimilar to what its fans know and love: for better or worse, ST'09 is undeniably J.J. Abrams. From what I have seen in Lost and Cloverfield, Abrams' signature visual style is quickly-paced camera switches and the occasional appliance of 'jumpy' camera effects, and it returns in this film. This could be particularly distressing to fans, whom are more at home with the visual style of the original show and films, where every scene was focused on small groups of characters or some centered object. In ST'09, dozens of things just seems to happen all around at once, which can be exciting but also distracting. If anything, ST'09 borrows the same modern-day method of "involving action" seen in First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis, and the last couple of series'. Likewise, Abrams love of large monsters returns in what feels like somewhat of an unnecessary action/lead-up scene. what also feels missing here is the sense of philosophy: the original Star Trek series and films all bared a strong sense of what is morally right or wrong, which is only partially touched upon in this movie. Another problem here is that, largely due to canonical references, this film is essentially a part of Star Trek lore: meaning that people coming into this with no previous care or knowledge of the series will be missing a lot, and may not even get into it.
Overall, ST'09 is a well-conceived film and one fun ride. Sure, it's not quite as fantastic an outing as The Wrath Of Khan, The Undiscovered Country or maybe First Contact, but it doesn't fail fans and non-Trekkies nearly as much as The Motion Picture. Fans will see this, of course. Casual movie-goers - you may find a good bit of enjoyment here, but some of you who enjoy a bit less sci-fi may wish to avoid it all the same. Personally, when I witnessed the traditional closing shot of Star Trek, I knew I had just been through yet another satisfying adventure of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and couldn't wait for the next one.
Until next time, Live Long and Prosper.