| | Guess I have to say a few words about the new Star Trek, which I saw last night at a slightly-earlier-than-midnight screening. I'm pleased to report that the movie is, overall, very good. There are a few minor quibbles I had, but for the most part, it's incredibly entertaining for fans and non-fans alike. J.J. Abrams and Co. have really suceeded in giving the franchise a much-needed kick in the warp core.
SLIGHT SPOLIERS (nothing too major, though): The movie pulls off the delicate trick of respecting the established Trek canon and then turning around and freeing itself from 40+ years of (admittedly convoluted) continuity. As a longtime fan, I have to say that it was the right thing to do, and that aspect of the movie doesn't bother me one bit. I realized a while back, after sitting through what I could stand of Voyager and Enterprise, that following continuity wasn't the most important thing to me; I really just wanted Star Trek to be good again. Obviously, major things needed to be respected (you can't turn Spock into an Andorian or anything like that), but as I've learned from studing film editing, if you're looking at how much water is in the glass on the table in the background, you're kind of missing the point.
With the arrival of the movie's villain, a Romulan mining ship captain named Nero (a serviceable Eric Bana), who travels back in time from the post-Next Generation era, intending to perform a little Terminator action on the Federation, things are set in motion that will alter what we have come to know as the future history of Star Trek. And we're not talking little insignificant changes; the filmmakers take decisive, deliberate, and fairly bold actions that ensure future installments of the series will not be bound by what's come before. Again, this is something I am totally on board with; it's kind of like having a new Original Series, not knowing exactly what's coming next. END SPOILERS
The film is not without its flaws. There were a few moments I felt were a little rushed, and most of the science in the movie is complete hokum. To be fair, Star Trek often hasn't been completely scientifically sound, but there was usually an attempt to make the science at least sound like it might be plausible in a few hundred years. Of course, that's a nitpicky thing; as Arthur C. Clarke famously said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," so I'll go with it. [EDIT - Actually, forget I said all of that. I doubt that red matter is really that much less plausible than age-defying metaphasic radiation, and it's certainly more believable than the Nexus.] Also, the movie is pretty short on the philosophical fun that has characterized all the Trek incarnations at their best. The "messages" in the Original Series tended to be heavy-handed at times, but for 1960s television, I guess they kind of needed to be. I can let this pass for now, too, as this movie is more about re-establishing the characters and the setting, but I hope that future movies will start to tackle some bigger ideas (albeit in a less didactic way).
However, what the movie gets totally, absolutely, and even joyfully right is the characterizations of the future Enterprise crew, which is what I was most hopeful for. By reintroducing Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu to new audiences, the film reminds us longtime fans why we liked them so much in the first place. Chris Pine wisely avoids impersonating a young William Shatner, and instead very effectively portrays a young Jim Kirk. Zoe Saldana is an attractive and assured Uhura, John Cho is an energetic Sulu, and Karl Urban and Simon Pegg steal almost every scene they're in as Dr. McCoy and Scotty, respectively. Anton Yelchin overdoes Chekov's Russian accent more than Walter Koenig ever did, but maybe Chekov's just young and still working on his English. Zachary Quinto also impresses as Spock, especially considering that he has to compete with Leonard Nimoy (listed in the cast as "Spock Prime," an obvious nod to the DC multiverse), who brings his iconic character full circle in a warm and, dare I say, emotional performance (he is half-human, after all).
The visual effects are also pretty impressive (with ILM making a welcome return to the franchise), and the shaky-cam cinematography is distracting only in a few places; most of the time it works just fine. Michael Giacchino's score is also notable; it doesn't quite reach the heights of some of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner's work for the series, but maybe I'm just biased. Giacchino's music is full-blooded, distinctive, and energetic without ever becoming too repetitive, and I really hope he gets to expand his ideas in future movies.
Above all else, the new Star Trek is just a really good time at the movies. And even though the characters have some angsty issues to work out, there's a decidedly optimistic feel to the whole thing, which was another trait of the Original Series that's gotten kind of muddied along the way. Darker elements of the Trek universe have been explored, sometimes quite successfully, as in The Undiscovered Country and Deep Space Nine, but even those stories usually ended on a fairly hopeful note, and it's good to see that underlying positivity back in full force for the new movie. Despite its shortcomings, I think this film is the right thing for the franchise at this time, and what's truly amazing is that J.J. Abrams and his cast and crew have made Star Trek cool again, largely by allowing it to be itself.
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| | Posted 5/8/2009 7:36 PM - 2 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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