Quite possibly the boldest master stroke in movie history.

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2009)

It would not be an overstatement to say that this is quite possibly the boldest master stroke in movie history. After decades of derivative and diminished sequels and spin-offs, J.J. Abrams has managed to re-imagine the venerable classic in a way that is both true to the original and at the same time completely original. At the same time, he has rebooted the franchise in a way that will silence all the canon critics and created an independent and fresh future for years to come. Don't believe me? The sequel is already announced.
The problem with all the previous sequels was that they became increasingly diluted by budget constraints and cramped creativity as compared to their peers. With an estimated budget of $150 million, this sequel was anointed as the heir apparent to the franchise, and succeeded brilliantly.
Abrams could have approached this project with the cautious reverence it deserves, except that it deserved more, and Abrams knew it. We are given the obligatory historical references, and they are immensely satisfying, but they are also shrewdly seductive, as they lead us down the path of complacency. But from the beginning you get a sense that something isn't right, and you begin to wonder, "is he blowing it here?" These deviations accelerate and, before long, reach a point of no return. Now you're on the edge of your chair, where you belong, and you wonder how he's going to make it all right again. He doesn't.
Instead, we are shown a radically and irretrievably altered world where everything we thought we knew is swept away and replaced with a pristine tabula rasa. At last, Star Trek takes us, with glee and innocence, where no man has gone before. I would not have thought it possible, but this sequel is at once imbued with everything we liked best about the original series, and deviously enhanced by new possibilities, new capabilities, and a stunning Universe to once again explore anew.
There is time travel invoked, but, for once, it is not used as a Cosmic Mulligan. There is no do-over. A Romulan ship from the future arrives from a black hole to wreak revenge for a destroyed world, seeking to destroy other worlds in its path. The Enterprise and her intrepid crew, displaying all the humor, courage, and heroism for which we have come to love them, set out to save what is left of the Federation. If that doesn't make you want to see the movie, nothing will.
As a professor, I deal with people of all ages, all walks of life. Everyone I have spoken to raves about this film like none other that I can recall. As for me, I left the theatre with a feeling that maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong when he said "There are no second acts in American life." That may have been true in Fitzgerald's time, but Star Trek, in all its revisionist glory, stands as proof that we live in a time when even the most tattered among us can reinvent ourselves with verve and purpose. Is this not the greatest gift that cinema has to offer?