Star Trek - The Un-Numbered Movie
Written: May 14 '09 (Updated May 17 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: excellent casting, good script, great special effects, some reverence for Trek history
Cons: continuity nit-picks, status of characters at end of film feels rushed
The Bottom Line: I was prepared to tear the film apart, but came away feeling much better about the franchise after viewing this.
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| AliventiAsylum's Full Review: Star Trek |
I have to say that the trend to re-invent old television shows troubles me. There are classic shows I grew up with that will forever be cemented in my memory as cornerstones of my formative years. Though it ran for only one season, the original Battlestar Galactica was one of those. I think the series on the Sci-Fi Channel is terrific, it just never really seemed like Battlestar Galactica to me, and I never really accepted that Starbuck was a female. When I hear that name, I shall always picture Dirk Benedict.
This was why when I heard that the Star Trek franchise was going to go back to the beginning and "re-invent" itself with the Kirk and Spock years, I has a great many misgivings. I pictured the history of the show being raped in favor of a more edgy storyline. Early feedback from those who know me best said that if I didn't like Battlestar Galactica, I probably wasn't going to like the new Star Trek movie, either.
I am happy to say that assessment was wrong, for the most part.
There is a great leap of faith that needs to be taken by followers of the original series to appreciate this film. That leap of faith is that a few people traveling back in time can really muck things up from the way they should be. The film begins with a Romulan named Nero traveling back in time from the period after the last movie fans saw with The Next Generation crew. It was purely by accident, really, but he's here now and wants to wreak havoc on the galaxy. In particular, he wants payback with Ambassador Spock for a perceived transgression. The only problem is, the Ambassador isn't there... yet.
In this sequence, the audience is first introduced to the legendary Captain Kirk. He is much more than a simple Iowa farm boy that most of us knew from the original series. His father was killed in a confrontation with the film's villain the same day he was born. It would seem his mother was something of an absentee parent and he was a bit of a hellion - no real surprise there.
Spock is shown as a troubled youth, not quite fitting in on Vulcan. From the fact that we see the youth of Kirk and Spock depicted, it would seem the film was going to focus on the bond between the two of them. To a certain extent, that is the case. However, there are also a number of missed opportunities that will leave people hungry for better character development.
From here the story takes on the flavor of the films, or even the old television shows with the villain of the week. There are parts that work and parts that don't.
My main gripe comes with the look and technology of this film as compared to the original series. When we first see the early Star Trek universe, it in no way resembles the world we saw in those early episodes. I can understand wanting to update it, and this would have been easy to do by having the ships appear at least similar to the old-style ships when Nero first travels back in time. If the fans are going to swallow other changes to the universe of Kirk and Spock due to the time continuum being disrupted, thereby creating an alternate reality, they could swallow the fact that the disruption created a differing technology from this point forward.
It's also always been intimated that something changed between Starfleet of the original series and The Next Generation. Families weren't present on starships in the original series - this was a development after the fact. However, Kirk's father and mother are serving together aboard the Kelvin and she is about to give birth.
Other nit-picks that were raised by others I can believe due to the timeline differences. The fact that Chekov appears on the Enterprise early on when he didn't appear until the second season of the series can be explained by this ripple. Originally, Spock and Captain Pike served together for ten years before Kirk came along and took command of the Enterprise.
However, this segues into bits of continuity that are done well. The condition Captain Pike is in at the end of the film is reminiscent of his original fate. There's also some good continuity moments in regard to Spock being somewhat out of place in the Vulcan society, which was brought up in the fifth film. The creature Nero uses on Captain Pike as a truth extractor is reminiscent of the one Khan uses on his adversaries in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. These little touches help the film work for those like me.
Ultimately what I liked, though was the casting. Chris Pine was excellent as Kirk, with enough of the brashness and confidence that keeps the character similar, while at the same time there's a need for maturity still evident. This is one of the reasons I wish they hadn't rushed to put him in the Captain's chair so soon after being a cadet.
Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana are terrific in the role of Spock and Uhura. Spock is quite different from the Spock I know and for me the jury is still out on how I feel about that. I'm not feeling very accepting of the relationship between the two, especially after watching a certain nurse pine after Spock for years only to get the unemotional shoulder. Still, Saldana gets the role of Uhura right with a certain decorum and intelligence that I really appreciated as she was one of my heroes growing up.
Simon Pegg as Scotty doesn't appear for some time, but when he does I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think James Doohan would be proud. Karl Urban says many of Dr. McCoy's famous lines, but I'm not convinced he feels them. Still, I did feel the bond between him and Kirk, and it was much stronger than that of Spock and Kirk at the end of the film in my perceptions.
Winona Ryder is mis-cast as Spock's mother, but Ben Cross is an excellent choice for Sarek and I think most Trek fans will be happy with that selection. Eric Bana is Nero and is fine, but he's really a disposable villain of the week.
The effects are terrific and really do the series justice. Director J.J. Abrams has always been a fan of the hand-held camera and at times I thought he overdid it. Where the other films almost all had soundtracks that I could listen to without the film, I can't even remember there being a soundtrack to this film, which is another disappointment.
I came away from Star Trek liking it much more than I expected to. I am looking forward to this re-take of the series as I think the way it was re-invented was much more palatable than I've seen other series do. Everyone will not be satisfied and enjoying this at times does take a leap of faith. I could also see some people being confused by what they've seen in the original Star Trek universe and then seeing this. My parents, for one, would have difficulty digesting the differences between the two series and I would be forced to sit there trying to explain it to them.
I hope the characters are developed more in the future as well. Kirk could really use a bit more experience, as could most of the cast before they are thrust into crewing what was called the flagship of the fleet. However, I think this charts out a great course for a generation who didn't grow up on the series.
© 2009 Patti Aliventi
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Patti Aliventi
Location: Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire
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Now writing reviews to pay for the "out of network" costs of our health insurance...
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