Summer Movie Review - STAR TREK

May 18, 2009

When last we left you, our hero Jason left his legions of blog-o-philes on a cliffhanger teasing a summer movie review of STAR TREK. Lets pick up the action now:

So...yeah. Here it is.

Now I will say that I cannot be an impartial reviewer of this movie or really anything having to do with Star Trek. For all my 36 years I have been a Star Trek nut! Granted Star Wars is my passion but Star Trek has always been the "steady girlfriend" who is always there for you. Maybe it's because Star Trek never goes away for 15 years at a time, Mr. George "I-Want-to-Spend-Time-With-My-Kids-So-I-Don't-Have-Time-to-Make-New-Star-Wars-Movies-But-I-Do-Have-Time-to-Make-Howard-The-Duck" Lucas. (I'm not bitter or anything.)

No, it's just that until very recently Star Trek really has never left the collective consciousness of my generation. I grew up with the reruns of the original TV series. Then we watched creator Gene Roddenberry successfully move the original franchise to the silver screen (albeit disjointedly with an ever-changing clown college of directors including both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy...yikes). The popularity of the first four Star Trek films spawned the need for a Star Trek franchise for The Next Generation, so enter Jean-Luc Picard onto the deck of a new USS Enterprise. After time ravaged the original cast in the next two films and with the ST: TNG franchise going where no man had gone before, Rick Berman took the late Roddenberry's brainchild to theaters again for four more films. Other TV spin-offs ensued including Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise until the latter went dark a couple of years ago.

The most recent three small screen serials aside, Trekkies (wonderful bunch of people, if you can stand to be seen with them in any public setting for more than five minutes) will debate you tooth and nail on the relative merits of which of the Big Two TV franchises is superior: Kirk's crew or The Next Generation. While I feel there are arguments to be made for and against on both sides (sure you could see the strings holding up the Klingon ships in the 1960's show but come on...it's James T. Kirk!) there can be no doubting the universal love and admiration for Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura...not to mention all those poor "red shirts" who time and again met their untimely demise on all those away missions simply by making poor wardrobe choices.

I will admit I am no fan of J.J. Abrams overly stylistic method of storytelling. As much as I liked the original season of Lost, that series needed to crash land a long time ago; so to say I was confident in his ability to add something new to this treasured entity in prequel form would be like a Ferengi donating the profits of a deal to United Way (just trust me, it's funny.)

I WAS WRONG!

This may have been one of the best commercial ventures ever to bear the STAR TREK name! Not only did this movie have more heart-pounding, phaser blasting action than all ten of the previous films combined, it completely delivered on character exposition and advancing the story. In fact it over-delivered...and that was so great!

My concern for Abrams not treating the original storyline with reverence in favor of his typical uber-stylization was quickly put to rest mere minutes into the movie because he masterfully space-walked a very fine line between both and it worked!

Brilliant job of casting. The ensemble cast of mostly unknowns works on so many levels. One character does not overshadow another because of their que-rating which is often the case when a big name actor is brought in. All of these actors pay amazing homage to their predecessors with their performances while not attempting to precisely mimic every little nuance. Although I must say that Karl Urban, who portrays Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in this movie, does an outstanding DeForest Kelley (the original Bones).

I know this is supposed to be a review but I really don't want to give too much away! The special effects are top notch! The story is grounded in Star Trek lore but does not take itself so seriously that it can't be a fun ride!

If I do have one criticism, it would be that some of the die-hard Trekkies (and I mean the Spock ear wearing, convention regulars who are encyclopedias of Star Trek knowledge and trivia) might feel as though they're being given the middle finger for all of their patronage over the years after the film's conclusion. It's not a blatant slap in the face...it's very subtle. Again, I don't want to spoil too much here but embrace the concept that the ultimate conclusion to this movie now enables Trekkies to enjoy an entirely new set of adventures with the original crew without the constraints of the show's well established but limiting history.

GO!!! NOW!!! See this movie! If you're not a Star Trek fan, go see this movie! If you're not even a sci-fi fan...go see this movie! And if you are a fan, go see it and then go see it again!

Trekkies rejoice - it's now cool to love Star Trek! Just keep the fake ears and Klingon masks at home. Cool has it's limits. :)