Star Trek (2009) Stardate 2258.42: Synopsis in main Movie listing
   
After having watched the movie three times I finally feel I get the movie enough to write a review about it. Star Trek is a good movie and it’s even a good Star Trek movie. It’s still not Wrath of Khan (TWOK) but it has beaten First Contact for the #2 spot. Still it’s not a perfect (Star Trek) movie and that’s what I’ll try to explain in the next few paragraphs.
The most noticeable thing that any Trekkie will spot immediately is that it completely reimagines the original Star Trek. There’s no getting around it, it’s a BSG-style reimagining (although it doesn’t go as far as to make Spock a woman) and you have to except that or else you’re going to be bummed out for the entire movie. They bring in a time travel plot to explain this change but that just doesn’t work when you think about it. But at least they tried and it would’ve been worse if they just jumped into the new universe without connecting it with the old one.
The first few minutes of the movie you’ll be on the edge of your seat, even more so if you watch it in a movie theatre where Michael Giacchino’s music (more about the music later) really helps elevate the experience to an epic scale. That ten minute intro is perhaps the finest scene in the entirety of Star Trek’s movies and TV series. It’s gripping and breathtaking. Even the title screen is a tearjerker. You have to see it to experience it.
After that the movie goes off in the wrong direction. The whole cop chase feels a bit too contrived. It does succeed in it’s goal to show off that Kirk’s a rebel but it does it in a wrong way. Also what’s with that Nokia product placement? Luckily it picks up after that and the quality goes up in a straight line until the end. Especially Kirk’s scenes are fun to watch and Pine does an excellent job to show us some of Kirk’s characteristics.
From there on out the main plot unfolds and while it never reaches the same heights as the intro it’s still a great ride. There are a few moments when Abrams drops the ball but those do not outweigh the good scenes. Especially the ending is very well done and it’s only beaten by TWOK’s ending.
Now that I’ve briefly gone through the movie I want to delve a bit deeper into the various aspects of the movie and point out the things I liked and disliked.
Cast: The recast characters are all very well done. Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Karl Urban (McCoy) really nail the essence of the characters from TOS. Even though the Spock in this movie might seem emotional and erratic at times this is very well explained in the movie. It lends greatly upon Nimoy’s character after TOS who grew more in touch with his human side an almost undeveloped something in TOS. When he is being logic, he’s almost exactly like a (albeit younger) version of Nimoy in TOS. Urban does a great job but since the Kirk-Spock relationship is paramount in the movie he doesn’t get to add much to the character. I want to see more of him in the sequel. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura is perhaps the most reimagined character of the crew of the Enterprise something I praise the writers for. A pretty standard character in TOS she is transformed into someone who can hold her ground and can compete with the best man around. That is truly something that fits in with Roddenberry’s utopian vision.
Chris Pine as Kirk is good but not the best. I think this mostly has to do with him not being the character he is in TOS and beyond. Unlike the others (except Chekov, but he’s always been a kid) he’s still not mature enough. I’m confident this will change in the sequel as during the moments he was the captain he was very convincing.
The rest of the characters get very little screen time and thus cannot reach the same depth as the other characters. Yet when they do appear on screen they do their best. Anton Yelchin does a better job as Chekov then I thought. The real let down is Scotty. He’s not a clown, but for some reason Pegg seems to think so. Perhaps it’s the writers fault as well. He’s a bit too much comic relief. The miracle worker attitude and the few serious lines he gets hold promise though.
Another letdown is Nero. Eric Bana does a great job but his character is given very little depth. There was one moment when he could’ve explained a lot of his motivation and origin but for some reason the writers and director let that opportunity slide. Luckily I read the Star Trek: Countdown comic books which explain a lot of the plot holes in the movie. Nero is a much better character in those comics and it’s a shame that they didn’t follow through on that.
Bruce Greenwood as Pike is arguably my favourite character. While Pike is nothing like it in "The Cage" Greenwood and the writers make Pike into a character that feels natural. It feels as if always was to be this way. The characters of George Kirk, Winona Kirk and Captain Robau are also very well done. I wish I could see more of them.
In the end I almost always forgot I was watching new actors play my favourite characters. And that’s what it’s about.
Design: The most striking difference between old Star Trek and new Star Trek is the look. Almost everything was redesigned. The starships I have no problem with. With the exception of the Enterprise’s huge nacelles everything looks great and not too farfetched. The interior designs I’m not so happy with. Especially the Enterprise’s bridge and engineering are just awful. While the Kelvin’s interiors have the same basic design as the Enterprise’s (as they are redresses) on the former it feels more like a whole. On the Enterprise you have the iPod-white bridge versus the grimy engineering section (which is too big by the way). It just doesn’t work. Hopefully they’ll tone it down a bit for the sequels. It’s great for Abrams that he saved money by making a brewery into an engineering section but it just doesn’t work. The more futuristic looking concept art of engineering was much more appealing. Industrial doesn’t work with Trek.
Luckily the design is not as important as it is mostly about the story and the characters. So only during a few scenes it bothers a bit.
Sound & music: For this aspect of the movie I have nothing but praise. The sounds either sound like TOS or are pulled straight from it. The music is probably one of the highlights of the movie. Michael Giacchino did a great job. When you can’t imagine the movie without the music then you know you done a good job as a composer. The new Star Trek tune fits the movie much better than the old one. It really captures that Star Trek feel. Overall the soundtrack is among the greatest in the Star Trek pantheon. It’s right up there with Horner and Goldsmith.
My only gripe is that they did not put music under the Kirk-taking-command scene. That was such an awesome moment in the trailer but in the movie it was pretty dull even though it was such a life-changing moment for Kirk.
Continuity: Star Trek’s biggest problems are the continuity issues. Some can be excused. But some are just blatant errors that Abrams didn’t have to make. Especially the Delta Vega thing annoyed me. It’s just unnecessary name dropping.
About the whole Vulcan-getting-destroyed thing, I think it’s the best thing Abrams could’ve done. It shows that he’s willing to do things. Old Trek was safe. In the end everything was still the same which made it often lack excitement. Abrams basically kills off a character (Vulcan). That’s always a hard thing to do but sometimes it can be the right thing to do. First of all it offers great storytelling ideas for novels and such. The Vulcan race and culture still survive so nothing of that is lost. I don’t see what the problem is.
The future: What excites me the most about the movie is its possibilities. I like to compare Star Trek to Batman: Begins. Both are very good movies, they made about the same money on the same budget and they both rebooted/reimagined a popular universe. If one can see what can grow out of Batman: Begins (The Dark Knight) than imagine what’s possible with Star Trek II. I also like how it opens up a whole new universe for us fans. It’s pretty much like after Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Fans were shown a whole new universe (new characters, a new Enterprise, Klingons with ridges!) and nothing was certain. With TNG you kinda knew what could happen because the universe was fleshed out by three series and four movies. It’s a good time to be a Trekkie.
Rating: 8 (Robau)

 

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