Star Trek – Review

Reviews, Top Story

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Director: J.J. Abrams
Notable Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood

You know that cathartic experience of enjoying a movie in which the end result finds you gripping your armrests, your mouth agape with delight? It’s a rare occurrence, but when it does happen you just know you’ve witnessed something special. Star Trek is two hours of fun and excitement. It’s abuzz with youthful exuberance. And best of all, you don’t have to be a Trekkie to enjoy J.J. Abrams’s reboot of a franchise that’s been around for forty-four years.  

Has Gene Roddenberry’s creation been apart of our culture for forty-four years? Fans saved it from the cancellation block, and then were rewarded with multiple TV spin-offs and film features (ten up until now). This is J.J. Abrams’s second time directing a summer tentpole picture, and his experiences with Mission: Impossible III are magnified a hundred fold. He and his collaborators, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (screenwriters who pull double duty this summer with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) journey to the past, years and years before the campy, yet pop culture-fied, television series takes place.

Like Batman Begins and Casino Royale, which took bold steps in revamping two iconic characters, Trek turns back the clock – before it can click into warp speed – and underpins the relationship of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto). Clashing at Starfleet Academy and again on the U.S.S. Enterprise, Kirk doesn’t look like he can graduate let alone command a Starship. He’s a bull in a china shop, a rebel of authority but a man of action. Then there’s Spock, a first officer with otherworldly intellect. Part human, part Vulcan, he’s a man of two worlds still coming to grips with his own heritage.

Getting into barfights with Starfleet students in his home state of Iowa, Kirk is corralled by Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) who tells him about his father’s bravery. He captained the U.S.S. Kelvin for twelve minutes, saving 800 lives, including a newborn that would be named Jim because Tiberius was just too terrible-sounding. Pike urges Kirk to enlist in Starfleet, believing he has the potential to do better. Kirk takes him up on the challenge, and his brashness is a bitter pill for some. But not for a medical student named Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban). The same cannot be said for Spock who, like the teaching staff, is frustrated by Kirk’s arrogance and attitude.

Before he died Gene Roddenberry hoped that some day some bright young thing would come along and do [Trek] again, bigger and better than he had ever done it. With a production budget of $140 million and another $150 million going towards marketing and distribution J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek is not the Trek of old. It would be like comparing Adam West’s Batman to Christian Bale’s. And while it may not adhere to the ideals of Roddenberry’s creation, everything clicks.

The production values and state-of-the-art visuals wow the eyes, Michael Giacchino’s score will astound your ears, yet its true greatness lies with the inspired casting, and the story to a small degree. Aside from the Kirk/Spock relationship story arc, there’s a Romulan threat. This band of alien baddies is on a course to destroy each Federation planet. All thanks to a doomsday device (aka a black hole generator).

The cast is lifted by Orci and Kurtzman’s prose, as they litter the screenplay with little nods to the original series – like Kirk making out with a green chick. Karl Urban, who played the mute assassin in The Bourne Supremacy, gets to talk for a change as the ornery McCoy. And it wouldn’t be McCoy if we didn’t have at least one, “Dammit, Jim…” Simon Pegg, who is introduced late into the second act, as Scotty is another sound choice, but some might disagree. Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) have minor moments, leaving me wanting to see more of them in the you-know-it’s-coming sequel.

Earlier this year I was asked who would be the breakout stars of 2009. I immediately said the cast of Star Trek. More specifically, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Pine, who is still a relative unknown, has the macho swagger to pull off Kirk. A combination of Maverick from Top Gun and Han Solo, he’s so damn cool. And Quinto, too. Best known as Sylar on TV’s Heroes, Quinto evokes calmness as Spock, weighted with the heavy burden of being half human and half Vulcan.  You couldn’t ask for a better pairing.

As someone who didn’t watch much Star Trek growing up, I don’t think J.J. Abrams’s souped-up version will have non-Trekkies clamoring to see the original series or any of the previous ten films. His interpretation is the kitchen-sink approach, and die-hard fans of Abrams will see the subtle nods to Cloverfield and alternate realities. Big, bright, shiny and new, this Star Trek is a summer roller-coaster ride full of action, suspense and the right amount of tongue-in-cheek comedy. Well worth your entertainment dollar.

FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):



Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!