Enter Abrams and his creative team of producers Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof (co-creator of “Lost” with Abrams) and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (this summer’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”). They had a brand new idea of where this franchise should boldly go, by simultaneously rebooting the stale series with some post-millennial potency and remaining true to the series’ original core of futuristic optimism.
And the result are almost consistently thrilling, even overcoming some more of the preposterous story elements.
Wisely, the movie kicks off with an adrenaline-fueled bang (literally), beginning with an extended, pre-credits action sequence prologue that sets up the rest of the movie. We see future Captain Kirk’s father (Chris Hemsworth, a Star Fleet first-officer inadvertently made Captain by the death of his superior) fighting off villainous Romulan Nero (Eric Bana) and his crazy futuristic spaceship, which looks kind of like a giant squid and ominous. Ultimately, at the end of this sequence we see our hero, young Kirk, being born in an escape pod, while his father sacrifices himself in an attempt to heroically destroy the Romulan megaship.
It’s an almost ridiculously exciting sequence and there are whole sections that cut away dialogue and sound and instead pump up the volume on Michael Giacchino’s impressive, operatic score. It’s ballsy, brilliant big budget filmmaking. And excellent use of extremely effective cinematic techniques – something simple, but still miles beyond anything George Lucas would have ever thought of. And it sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
From there, we see young Kirk from the trailer, speeding away in his stepfather’s vintage (ancient?) Corvette (blasting away the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” which actually works), as well as young Spock, getting hassled for being half-human on his home planet of Vulcan. Both sequences while brief, convincingly and economically set the motivations and psychological hang-ups for their characters (again, simple stuff, but a cut above most action films).
From there, we flash forward and get a glimpse of young-man Kirk (Chris Pine, handsome, roguish and charismatic, surprisingly good at carrying the whole film), headstrong and full of verve, as he gets in a fight with some Starfleet cadets at a local bar while trying to impress Uhura (Zoe Saldana, whose brio almost walks away with the whole movie). Captain Pike (an excellently imposing Bruce Greenwood), the Enterprise’s captain, breaks up the fight and suggests a different path for Kirk – instead of roughhousing at shitkicker bars, he should join Starfleet and make a difference. The arrogant young Kirk scoffs, but later on reluctantly agrees. Elsewhere, on Vulcan, Spock (“Heroes”’ Zachary Quinto – perfect) decides a different path for himself, too.
During an inquisition into whether or not he cheated by pre-programming the unbeatable Kobayashi Maru exercise (programmed by Spock), an emergency is reported near Vulcan and Kirk, Spock, Bones (Karl Urban, who is normally great, but chokes here on his clumsy pantomime and accent), and Uhura rush to join the fight, aboard Pike’s Enterprise.
It’s onboard the Enterprise that we meet other future favorites Sulu (John Cho from “Harold & Kumar”…), Chekov (baby-faced Anton Yelchin who injects a lot of humor and despite reports does the Russian accent well enough). It should be noted that the cast is almost uniformly excellent (save Urban). Each actor fits into their preexisting role with ease and relaxation, adding much to their new characterization while never falling back too hard on the standard character traits we all know and love. i.e., no one’s trying too hard to ape the tics and play caricatures. It’s a wise decision and we assume a dictum from Abrams.
Once everybody’s on board the Enterprise, the film briskly moves along, peppered with escalating, elegantly put together action sequences that are truly thrilling (and too good to spoil here; though one of them seems far too much like a scene from Abrams’ “Mission Impossible III” and a little too outside the ‘Trek’ universe). Bana makes his return as the snarling villain, but he’s ultimately a superficial malcontent rather than a super-evil-doer: his motivations are about as deep as his scary face tattoos.
Besides Bana’s watered down baddie, the chief problem with “Star Trek” is that the thrust of its central plot is its biggest weakness, but it’s also the thing that ties the film into the existing Trek canon so well (spoiler alert: it involves wonky plot-deficient time travel deus ex machinas), but the tethering seems forced and pandering to the fans (though no William Shatner indicates that they knew a line had to be drawn somewhere).
But it’s a true testament to the picture — how the movie does so many things right, it moves and is staged with such stylish sure-handedness (that aggressive use of lens flare actually work) — that the “plot” deficiencies don’t really matter (sounds comical, but honest-to-goodness true). This is an engaging, feel good space opera; filled with photon torpedoes, laser fights, and spaceships colliding into one another with raw physicality (the peerless visual effects handled by Industrial Light & Magic bounce all tentpole out of the park so far this year). The writing is sharp (except for the few times it veers too far into the dorky wastelands, which is understandable), the direction is outstanding, and the cast does a remarkably good job (and again, kudos to most for avoiding lame impersonations).
And as far as rebooting a franchise, it’s nearly perfect (resisting the urge to go ‘Dark Knight’ gloomy is adroit and aware too) –- it gives an entry point to people who don’t know the difference between “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” while appealing to longtime fans of the series. And the updates are fresh and essential -– this Trek universe is a little rougher, a little sexier, a little scarier, but just as bright and optimistic. Best mainstream big-budget adventure/action film of the year so far? Easily. [B+] – Drew Taylor – [ed. saw it with Drew, fully agreed]