STAR TREK Review
Set phasers on melt adamantium. Star Trek is to good movies what Wolverine is to boring ones. Both are big budget affairs based on beloved franchises and huge fanbases. But where Wolverine falls flat (mainly due to studio meddling) Trek soars through every test and trial laid before it because of a tight screenplay that embraces what makes the past so worth revisiting and the future so full of hope. Of course advance buzz on this flick is so strong the greatest problem the film may face is being overhyped. But I can’t help but think that even that can’t hurt it. I actually thought about the first time I saw Star Wars once or twice while I was watching this film and that is perhaps the highest compliment a person my age can give a movie like this. It’s quite simply the purest blend of storytelling sensibility, sci fi action and old fashioned quick we’ve got to save the world cheese to hit the screen in a long time and even manages to be moving now and then. And did I mention that the visuals are absolutely spectacular?
If I had a nit to pick it would be that the action cuts away a little too quickly at times, and that J.J. Abrams use of closeup belies a lack of confidence in his ability to compose a frame. But these really are nitpicks at both the film and Abrams. I’m a huge fan of Lost, loved Mission Impossible III and will recommend this to everyone I see. It could be said that Abrams TV background shows a little much as well. Not only does he use closeup a lot but he also has his characters talk a lot. There’s nothing verging on parody here in the way thse younger actors channel the characters we all know and love just the sense that Abrams wants us to remember we are rebooting a very old television program and not a series of movies that were then made from it. This is Star Trek at it’s purest most undiluted but it is Star Trek for the here and now.
Critics who haven’t quite gotten that include the usually spot on Roger Ebert whose review reflected a frustration with the lack of scientific logic in the film and the lack of anything new or particularly compelling idea wise being added to the genre. I say Abrams has wisely reminded us all that Star Trek has NEVER been about it’s science and that before Trek can, once again, become a platform for ruminating on big ideas it must first recapture the magic that made us care about what those characters have to say about such things. I would gladly boldly follow this Spock, this Kirk, this Bones where no man has gone before.
A scene where Kirk and Sulu shoot out of the ship in spacesuits to ride the length of a massive antenna array is the one of the most exciting sights I’ll probably get in this blockbuster ridden moviescape. It is honestly right out of the pulp hall of fame and the first time I’ve ever seen it done where my hair stood up on end. The fight that takes place at the bottom of the journey is just as exciting. Abrams doesn’t push for the suspension of our disbelief any further than he needs to for the scene to accomplish what it is supposed to. Likewise with the overall look of the film and use of CGI throughout. We’re far more concerned about what might happen to a character to take too much notice of effects that Abrams knows todays audiences would spot as CGI no matter how good they are.
True the plot is an amalgam of things that have made other Trek films and episodes soar and sink. Rogue Romulans, time travel, mind controlling space worms and breathtaking space battles. But rather than merely settle for having his movie look better or more realistic Abrams gives us a group of brash, brilliant, headstrong young adults, who have the power to affect their own destiny, forge their own futures, and become or not become the characters we know and love creating a sense of danger. Those who worried the new Trek might become a soap opera in space rather than than a space opera can rest easy even if in In Abrams hands a plot involving time travel is less about physics and saving the world is less dependent on some dubiously magical device called the Heisenberg Compensator than on the choices of
Performances are just about spot on and everybody gets plenty of time to shine. Standouts include a dynamic Chris Pine who palpably channels Shatner without ever overdoing it. Zachary Quinto, who offers a Spock more human than Vulcan, uncertain of where to head and quite capable of malice or spite or lust, giving fans of the original show a look back at the cusp of his movement towards adulthood. And his performance culminating in an encounter with an older wiser Spock (which could have been the stuff of melodrama) is surprisingly nuanced redefining or perhaps clarifying our idea of the Vulcan ability to assimilate and deal with emotion. And a virtually unrecognizable Eric Bana is absolutely creepy, playing the stock Ahab-like villain (another Trek fallback) with exactly the right mix of righteous indignation at what motivates his revenge and irrational determination to get it at any cost. All the characters in the film get the shine to nod back to their highpoints fro the series, quip our favorite lines or establish origins.
TV may yet be the death of Trek. Five successful series in (if one counts DS9) one wonders if there can be another win of the ratings lottery. But watching this incredibly fun, dramatically character driven relaunch makes me hunger to be able to tune in every week.
