Great time at the movies

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2009)

Face it, the Star Trek franchise needed this, badly. The new Star Trek movie is fabulous, and will definitely find new fans and give the Enterprise a good shot of adrenaline. I know a lot of classic Trekkers (I always preferred that name) are crying blaspheme since it did not follow the true "canonical" history of the series and the original movies, but purists like that are not realists. Yes, Kirk's parents were murdered by an evil despot, he has a brother named Sam, and was originally on the Farragaut, not the Enterprise--at least that is the purist view. I can understand changes to the source material, but not in the show and movie's commitment to science. First, the warp drive works too well, making planets that were days or a couple weeks away now just a couple of hours. The other sin was Scotty's ability to beam something from one end of the galaxy to the next, even if one of those objects is at warp speed. Finally, one plot point of how Spock removes Kirk from the ship is ridiculously idiotic. However, the film has much more in the positive column. In this rebooted version by J.J. Abrams, Kirk's dad dies in the line of duty, allowing his pregnant wife to escape and give birth to James Tiberius Kirk. He is true to the maverick form portrayed in the original series, although he does not enunciate and hesitate in his painful over-acting. McCoy is also true to form as a cranky, old-fashioned doctor who is leery of new technology, especially transportation. My favorite (as it has always been) is the reboot of Scotty. Yes, he's still Scottish, he's still an engineering genius, but he's a lot more comical. Spock (Zachary Quinto), though, is taken in a different light. He must learn to follow his emotions and look to them. And we get all the phrases used: "I'm given her all I got, Captain," "I'm a doctor, not a physicist," "Fascinating." We get Captain Christopher Pike, Sarek, the Khobayashi Maru, and Romulans. The plot is that a Romulan Commander, Captain Nero (Eric Bana), travels back through time to exact revenge on the Federation. You see, the Spock we all know and love (Leonard Nimoy) was trying to prevent the Romulan sun from going supernova. However, he is too late, so Nero vows revenge and travels back in time to punish both Vulcan and Earth. This leads the Enterprise, commanded by Pike, to appoint Spock as acting captain and Kirk as the first officer. There are so many things that go so well with this movie. First, it is laced with action scenes blended with fantastic CGI effects the old television series could never duplicate. We also get the first taste of actually using the up and down mode with space as opposed to forward, reverse, and side to side. The audience is also treated to a more conflicted Spock. There is also a strong tension between Kirk and his Vulcan ally. There is a little romance, and some kick-ass space battles. There is also room for sequels (of course). Reading some earlier reviews, I recall seeing one calling this Star Trek the best prequel ever made. I agree. I can't wait for what's next.