Star Trek - Review

Director: JJ Abrams
Writers: Alex Kurtzman/Roberto Orci
Starring: Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto
Runtime: 2 hours 7 minutes

With the exception of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, the new Star Trek movie is the most fun movie in the franchise. It has taken a tired, old clunker of a ship and turned it back into something that can run at warp speed.

The movie is a prequel - of sorts. We see the moment that James T. Kirk is born, and we see a young Spock decide to forgo a life of science on Vulcan to join Star Fleet. The bad guys are the Romulans, there's plenty of "Fire phasers!" and "Incoming photon torpedo!" Kirk sleeps with a green skinned girl, he beats the hell out several people and aliens (but no, doesn't get his shirt ripped open), and a young Bones is along for the ride with lines like, "Damnit, man, I'm a doctor not a physicist!"

The movie's plot is preposterous, but it doesn't matter. Star Trek was always preposterous. Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, you name it, they all still speak fluent English and in fact speak it better than Chekhov.

The one moment in this film that made me worry was the appearance of a "time-travel-made-easy" plot device involving black holes. I needn't have worried. Though the science is completely out of whack, it's used for a good purpose: adventure and thrills. This far surpasses the other Star Trek movie, where time travel was used to...save whales.

This film takes Star Trek back to its roots. Kirk and Spock don't sit around wondering about the meaning of life. There are no aliens that need to be "understood." There isn't a wimpy Jean Luc Picard in sight. Shockingly, there are only two references of, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if there was peace all over the universe?" One of these references comes from Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who says that Star Fleet is a humanitarian fleet. That has always made me wonder: if humanity has become a load of peaceniks before taking to space, how did they develop phasers, photon torpedoes, and ships loaded for galactic bear?

The other reference to peace in our time comes near the end of the film. Kirk says a line so completely at odds with his character and the scene that it's ridiculous. It provides a big "Gimme a break" moment.

In any case, what you have here is a good, old fashioned science fiction opera. It's stripped down to the essentials of fun and gun. The filmmakers were smart in throwing a few bones to the Trekkie crowd (Scotty with the one-liners, a cameo by Leonard Nimoy) while keeping it fresh enough for new viewers. In essence, they made a movie that can please both camps.

See it.

Photos: Yahoo Movies