Henry Saw: Star Trek

Two solid movies in a row...it's a 2009 summer movie season miracle!


Finally caught up with seeing Star Trek and I'll admit I'm impressed.

I'm the very opposite of a "Trekkie". I knew almost nothing about Star Trek going into this film. What I did know about Star Trek I didn't care for. I'd only seen two Star Trek films in my life: Star Trek VI with my dad, Ben, and Ben's father and that was a really bad movie and I slept through a lot of it. I also have seen Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, which is widely considered the best Trek movie but I find it incredibly overrated. It's dull, silly, and is probably only worth watching if you like/love the original show and cast. Or if you like Shatner making ridiculous faces and screaming:



Anyway, I wasn't too hopeful for the new Star Trek. I think J.J. Abrams (the man behind Alias, Lost, Cloverfield, and Mission Impossible 3) is a very talented guy but I wasn't sure he could pull off a big space epic. Well he did, and he did so in a very impressive way.

Star Trek is the most fun movie of the summer thus far. I've heard it compared to last year's Iron Man, and while that's stretching it a bit, it gives you an idea of what Star Trek is like. Like Iron Man, Star Trek is bright, shiny, fast-paced, witty, trusting of its audience, and under two hours. Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are to be saying this, but Star Trek is just a great time at the movies.

The first smart thing Abrams and his screenwriters did was they decided to "reboot" the franchise. This movie is basically an origin story for the characters we've all heard of (Kirk, Spock, etc.) but through a story device, a very clever one I might add, this isn't the history of the characters the way Trekkies know them. Something happens that rewrites history so that all the baggage that might have been carried in from the original series and films is not there. This reboot also allows for this prequel (of sorts) to still have risk for the characters. When watching the Star Wars prequels you knew Obi Wan was never at risk because he had to grow up to become Alex Guinness. By restarting the franchise, while also still allowing for all the prior stories to have occurred (so that Trek nerds wouldn't bitch), the makers of Star Trek were able to make us believe that anything could happen to the characters in this new time line.

So Star Trek is a movie you can watch and enjoy even if you know nothing about the Star Trek universe. Everything you need to know is up on the screen. The film does throw in some things we all know about the original series ("I've given her all she's got captain!", "Live Long and Prosper", etc.) but they don't feel forced and are more amusing than annoying.

The cast is charming if all a bit on the bland side. Chris Pine, the new Captain Kirk, is a cocky and charming lead but really nothing more than a Frat Boy playing space-man. The best acting comes from Zachary Quinto who plays Spock. He does the whole dual-nature thing very well (Spock is half "logical" Vulcan and half "emotional" human) and makes Spock a compelling character as opposed to Leonard Nemoy's creation which always seemed kind of dull. The rest of the cast, Zoe Saldana (the girl from Drumline) as Uhura, Karl Urban (from Bourne Supremacy) as Bones, John Cho (Harold from the "and Kumar" movies) as Sulu, and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) as Scotty are all fun and manage to avoid doing flat imitations (which would have played like parodies) of the original cast.

If there's a weakness in the cast, and it's not really his fault, it is Eric Bana as the main villain Nero. The reason I don't blame him is that the role just sucks. Nero is not interesting or menacing and a giant chunk of his character arc makes zero sense. To fully enjoy the film you have to be able to just shrug off the nonsensical actions of the villain and just go with it. Bizarrely, Winona Ryder shows up in the film as Spock's mom. It's weird and jarring but also kinda cool, and it was nice to see her in a movie again. She's perfectly fine in the 3 minutes of screen time she's given.

What really makes Star Trek work is that the film's "big scenes" are very well executed while also having enough sharp dialogue in the "small scenes" to not bore the audience. The special effects on this movie are really strong. Compared to Wolverine, for instance, the effects in Trek are dazzling. There is one scene in the film where three of the heroes have to "space jump" from their ship in orbit onto the villains' ship which is hovering in Vulcan's atmosphere (imagine Sky Diving but jumping from a space ship instead of a plane) and it looked incredible and led to an exciting dynamic scene.

I fully recommend Star Trek. Now, I acknowledge that it might just not be for you. I can't tell you that Star Trek is now a "cool" franchise... it's still Star Trek. All I can say is that this Star Trek film, with this fresh start,this young cast, and this kind of action film making, is a really solid summer movie. It's eminently watchable and the most fun "space" movie we've had in a really long time (this just crushes the three Star Wars prequels for instance). So, again, I understand if you just won't go see a Star Trek movie on principle, but take it from me, if you skip this one you will definitely be missing out.

Grade: A-

Best Scene: The Space Jump