Review: JJ Abrams’ Star Trek

Over the past week I read several early takes, from critics I respect, about how good the new Star Trek movie is. And I got really nervous. You see, I’m a Star Trek fan – at a certain point in my life I was hard core about it (like “wear the uniform at conventions and debate on who was better captain” hard core) and I still hold a special place in my heart for it – I loved the original series, warts and all, and was a fan of The Next Generation as well (never really got into the three other shows). And I was excited over what JJ Abrams was going to bring to the table to revive the concept and “franchise.”

So, my expectations for this sequel/prequel/reboot were high, and, looking at the over 90% average approval rating has from critics at Rottentomatoes.com, I was afraid that I was about to play the role of Charlie Brown, and Abrams was going to play the part of Lucy… pulling the football away, to my great disappointment (awkward metaphor, but I think it’s appropriate).

I shouldn’t have worried.

Abram’s Star Trek is a wonder, a solid piece of entertainment that makes most previous Trek movies look like TV films done for the SF Channel. It’s a damn fine piece of showmanship that reminds us, “oh, yeah, this is the guy that directed the pilot for LOST.” This is a movie that does some pretty ballsy things with the characters and the universe that doesn’t get “fixed” in the end – and thank goodness for that. Trek has notoriously played with the Big Reset Button as a plot device at some point on every show (heck, it was even a central plot point of the Trek movie Generations) – do Something Dramatic, then do a big “reset” at the end so that it didn’t REALLY happen. Trek writers have abused that plot device so much if it was a horse it would be dead, stuffed and mounted in a cowboy museum.

Here they do several dramatic things and (as they say in comic books) Nothing is the Same Again! This time they mean it – at the end of the movie, we have no idea what will happen next to these characters. Will they ever meet Khan? Will they ever go to the gangster planet? Will they ever visit the Guardian of Forever (probably not – Harlan’s suing). Who knows. The producers now have carte blanche to revisit stuff that was in the original show, or ignore it completely. As someone who has seen “continuity porn” being the albatross around Trek’s neck for some time, I couldn’t be happier.

Star Trek can be new again.

Enough about the reboot, let’s talk about the cast. EVERYONE is outstanding here, but I have to call out Karl Urban as “Bones” McCoy… or, at least, that’s what the credits SAY the actor’s name is. They can’t fool me – it’s obvious that JJ has perfected time travel, and was able to pluck original actor DeForest Kelley off the Desilu backlot circa 1965 and get him to do this movie. Pretty canny trick, saying this “Urban” guy played the part. Uh-huh… sure.

Chris Pine is a bloody movie star after this movie, and deservedly so – the movie rests clearly on his shoulders and he delivers the goods – after watching him, he almost made me like his take on the character more than Shatner’s – no small feat. Zachary Quinto as Spock was an absolute shock – he is fantastic as Spock, and I congratulate him of rising to the challenge of playing the character opposite Leonard Nimoy – talk about a situation that invites head-to-head comparisons…

I can rattle on for another couple of hundred words, but I don’t see the point, because most of the content that would be contained in those extra paragraphs could be summarized by the words “exciting,” “awesome,” “fantastic,” and “kick ass.”

Star Trek is back, baby, and I’m feeling the same adrenaline rush I felt when another old favorite, Doctor Who, was rebooted for a new generation of fans a while back. Trek is entertaining the masses again, and I can’t wait for more.

Thanks’ JJ. You have the conn.