Narrative-wise it has many faults but, in terms of summer blockbusters, it is accessible, fun, noisy and exciting with plenty of easy entertainment and spectacle

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2009)

Satirical news provider The Onion did a bit on their website the week this film came out with the headline that (roughly) read "Fans slate new Trek film as 'fun' and 'accessible'" which not only allowed them to make fun of the previous Star Trek movies but also provide a good review of the new one. The new film doesn't deliver the goods when it comes to shots of men sitting talking around tables and other such Trek film standards but in fairness it could not do more to make it clear that this is a massive "reboot" of the franchise that, with one thing or another, had stopped being of interest to a lot of casual viewers.
The better Trek films have always been the ones that have a bit of pace to them and plenty of action (2 and 6 in my opinion) but even these have slower, duller moments that come with the territory. Mostly this film strips them out and leaves little but action across the running time, making it quite a spectacle to watch and why it is one of the summer blockbusters I decided to actually pay to see at the cinema rather than catch on DVD (Wolverine – I'll catch you when I can rent you). To borrow a worn cliché – the money is all there on the screen and almost without exception it looks great and it is very easy to get caught up in the speed and scale of it all. I particularly liked some of the more imaginative shots and techniques that it used, making it much more engaging and adding a further element of freshness (which, if we're frank, the franchise badly needed). I will temper this by saying that at times there seems to be spectacle for the sake of spectacle – such as the creatures on the ice planet and the silly car scene with a child Kirk at the wheel – and this does make me sit back a bit and see it as effects rather than something I should get emotionally engaged in but this is the minority of the film.
Another injection is the comedy. While it is careful not to out and out mock the originals, there is much to laugh at with plenty of good lines that subvert some of the things we know from the original films ("out of the chair" being my favourite but there are plenty others). I can see why this may be a problem for some but it does make it a lot more fun to watch than the last few Trek films. That the narrative is not as good as the action or throwaway lines is not much of a surprise but it does still niggle a little bit, specifically when it has to rely on so much coincidence to keep things moving. The sheer entertainment value of the film meant that I didn't dwell on these things but at times the way the plot plays out does suggest a little bit of contempt for the viewer. Having said that, it is a smart move to have the time travel plot that allows for the time-line of events to come to be totally changed (a point that the film labours to point out in one scene, so that everybody gets it) because this allows them to make further films that focus on action over detail without the worry of messing up some existing Trek time-line detail.
The cast surprised me in terms of how well they did – not least because the majority of them are not banner actors and indeed some of them I had never heard talk before (Urban's Bones is only known to me for his killer in the second Bourne film). Everyone does a sort of performance that allows us to know the character but doesn't get close enough to being an impression to be a worry. Pine fits the swaggering Kirk role really well and, although nothing here impresses me that much, he is very good as that. Likewise Quinto (Heroes) does a good job as Spock, managing better with the comedy impatience as well. Urban is as fun as Kelly ever was while Saldana makes for a very attractive Uhura (short skirt and all). Yelchin and Cho are quite fun but, as much as I like Simon Pegg, his wandering Scottish accent was so awful that it detracted from his otherwise funny performance. Both Greenwood and Bana add an older, tougher edge to the film, the latter being a particularly effective villain.
The new Star Trek film may upset fans because it does jettison pretty much all of the existing story in favour of starting its own as well as throwing all its weight into action and fun at the expense of almost everything else, but for the vast majority of viewers this will be the film's big selling point. Narrative-wise it has many faults but, in terms of summer blockbusters, it is accessible, fun, noisy and exciting with plenty of easy entertainment and spectacle. Great summer blockbuster.