Star Trek (Movie Review)

Movie Review
Star Trek
2009
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana
Directed by: J.J. Abrams

In the first ten years of the 21^st century, we’ve seen many major franchises receive reboots. The idea is that countless sequels have made these franchises stale and the studio wants to come up with a new story using the same characters. It has done wonders for the Batman series although, in the case of IPs like Superman, not so much. J.J. Abrams was tasked with giving Star Trek the reboot treatment in 2009; going back to the series roots of the original Enterprise with Kirk at the helm. However, the timeline of the Star Trek universe has been changed although the original canon has been preserved by having this story created in a parallel timeline. The story is interesting but when it comes down to it, it’s still a Star Trek movie. It’s predictable and really adds nothing new (the various movies have done time travel several times). It’s fine and Trekkers might get a kick out of it but it won’t turn you into one if you’re not.

A mysterious Romulan ship named the Narada appears out of a distortion in space. The USS Kelvin intercepts it and quickly realizes that it is unlike any other Romulan ship they’ve ever seen. The Narada quickly disables the Kelvin and the captain of the Narada, named Nero (Eric Bana) demands to speak to the captain of the Kelvin, named Robau (Faran Tahir). While speaking to Nero, Robau realizes that the Romulan ship is from the future. Nero doesn’t believe him and thinks it’s a trick. He orders the Kelvin to be destroyed. The Kelvin immediately abandons ship with the exception of acting captain George Kirk who attempts to draw the attention of the Narada away from the fleeing crew. At the same time, Kirk’s wife is giving birth to their son on one of the escaping lifeboats.

Kirk’s son grows up to be the notorious James Kirk (Chris Pine) but he isn’t the prized Starfleet pupil that we’ve come to expect. He clashes immediately with Spock (Zachary Quinto), a Vulcan instructor at Starfleet Academy. The two of them begin a fierce rivalry. Kirk and the rest of his cadets are rushed into space as Starfleet is under attack from the Narada. Nero is incensed and is looking to destroy the Federation for what happened to Romulus, the home planet of the Romulans in his time. Kirk and Spock squabble over everything as the two of them lead Starfleet against the much more powerful Romulan ship.

This movie would probably be more inclined to be classified as an action movie. There is quite a bit of it in the movie. The special effects budget must have been equivalent to the GDP of some third-world country because there are a lot of fancy explosions and assorted eye candy. On the big screen it looks good and it translates fairly well to home video. It’s not brainless action, mind you; it works around the story and, for the most part, everything is well thought out.

One thing that really rubbed me the wrong way is the presentation. I didn’t like the look of the sets. It felt as if too much thought was put into the design. The Romulan ship looks too bizarre and unfriendly for the sake of being bizarre and unfriendly. The bridge of the Enterprise looks too sterile and designer. It’s as if the sets were designed to make for great still photos to put on the covers of magazines but if the story of the movie was real, the designs of the interiors of these vessels would not be practical. It feels very fake in a way.

Another thing that makes hardly a bit of sense is how Kirk is able to helm the Enterprise considering that he’s just a cadet, he was facing discipline action at Starfleet headquarters prior to the confrontation with the Romulans, and he wasn’t supposed to be on the Enterprise to begin with (he snuck on, twice).

The acting is well done although there were some weak points. It’s hard to fault Quinto for his portrayal of Spock considering that the character Spock is supposed to be suppressing his emotions all the time. However, Quinto always has this sad puppy-dog look to him that gets to be annoying after awhile. Pine handles himself fine too considering the character but he too has this always pissed off look on his face that can be a little off-putting. Simon Pegg was particular good as Scotty though.

There is the issue of how this movie fits into the Star Trek universe. I find it a bit lazy that the writers decided to use the same cast as the original series but come up with their own canon by telling the story in a parallel timeline. It feels like as if they couldn’t come up with interesting characters themselves so they just reused some old ones. It doesn’t kill the movie but for some, they may find it less enjoyable. Some Trekkers may take offense to this tactic as it seems the writers decided to rework some of the characters as they saw fit. It would have been better had they used an original set-up rather than a prefabricated universe but, in the end, it doesn’t hurt the movie too much.

J.J Abrams made a good movie. It almost feels weird calling Star Trek a ‘Star Trek’ movie considering how it attempts to rewrite history. However, movies should be judged on their own merits and the film is good nonetheless. It could have been better in some areas but it was adequate mix between action and drama.

☆☆☆