worm hole and was showing little signs of life. Someone needed to step in, tricorder in hand, check the vital signs of Gene Roddenbery's creation, and perform CPR on the dying film and TV franchise.Enter director/producer J.J. Abrams, and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. In 2005, Paramount pictures drafted the trio to revive the ailing sci-fi franchise, and production of the film Star Trek commenced. Abrams, who was admittedly not a big fan of Star Trek felt that the last few films had only further alienated non-Trekkers, and that the new film needed to appeal to ordinary movie goers as well as the die hard fan base.
Well, the ball was pitched and Abrams and Co. hit one out of the park. Star Trek careens onto the screen at breakneck speed and doesn't let up for the duration of the ride, er, movie, I mean. All of the usual suspects are there, and though they wear different mugs than what we're used to, it doesn't take long to get used to idea that these are the crew of the Enterprise that we all know and love. Kirk, Bones, Spock, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov (played by a real Russian this time!), and eventually Scotty all show up this time around, and it's good to see them all again.
The whole movie revolves around a time travel yarn designed to facilitate the series reboot to an alternate reality (so the new creative team can start clean without upsetting the continuity of past movies and TV series'). This isn't your grandfather's Star Trek, but he'll like it too. A time traveling bad-ass Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) is pretty ticked off at the future version of Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy, ya
y!) for allowing his home planet Romulus to be destroyed by a supernova. Spock tries to limit the destruction by injecting something called red matter into the dying planet, whereby he creates a blackhole that sucks him and the bad guy ship into an alternate reality/space/time... thingy. With me so far? I didn't think so.Suffice it to say that the storyline is contrived, and some of the dialogue is cheeky. But this is Star Trek, for God's sake! It's supposed to be cheeky. The storylines have never made real sense. All of the actors hit their marks, though and Karl Urban is terrific as the new Bones, and Chris Pine simply shines as the young Jim Kirk (even though he has the voice and mannerisms of Christian Slater). The film has GREAT special effects without being too heavy handed. Use of green screen was minimized by finding real world sets to stand in as Star Trek locales. And the film has humor! My God does it have humor. Bones' and Kirk's chemistry is hilarious from the start, and it doesn't take long for the rest of the cast to get in on the action. Star Wars fans should recognize the hangar scene when Federation cadets (including Bones, Kirk, and Uhura) get the news about which ship they are being assigned to. It is taken directly from a scene in A New Hope when the rebels receive orders in a hangar just before they fly out to meet the death star. It's small, but it is definitely there, and Abrams' love for Star Wars bleeds through in other scenes as well.
When you boil all of its parts down to their most simplest form, it is clear that Star Trek is really just an origins film, written and designed to set the stage for many, many more sequels. And that should be exciting in and of itself for Trekkers, Trekkies, and for people who love great movies. Beam us up Mr. Abrams, we're ready to come aboard for the next adventure.
Kirk Out. (Oh, sweet relevance!)
