Star Trek

Star Trek

Dir. J.J. Abrams

127mins

Cert 12a

2009

It just became cool to like Star Trek.

J.J. Abrams’ new take on the franchise does the impossible. Star Trek is cool. Star Trek is sexy. Star Trek rocks. For the longest time this property has been mired in a slavish devotion to its own dreary rulebook. This film dares to be something else. It dares to be fun.

There’s a whole new cast. There’s a whole new ship. In fact there’s a whole new universe, and it’s wonderful. This is a Star Trek free of the burden of its own weight, free of the creaking yoke of decades-worth of trivia, hubris and idiosyncrasies. It’s a lean, agile film that is, for the first time in years, able to bring Star Trek somewhere that is truly unexplored. Take the tired musical score that has accompanied Trek for the past 20 years. It’s been replaced by... the Beastie Boys? Brilliant! And yet it feels like Star Trek. In a good way. The optimism, the humour and the humanity that made the series great in the first place are all back on centre stage.

I won’t overburden this review with the details of the plot, which are minimal in any case. The story is dependent on some unlikely coincidences and involves time travel, but for Star Trek it’s all par for the course, and the film’s so much fun that it’s easily forgiven. The film’s villain, a vengeful Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana, underutilised), is a two-dimensional baddie, but at least his makeup is good and his motives are clear. Nero is bloody ugly, and wants to kill everybody. It works.

The film is really about Kirk and Spock, both of whom are terrifically recast. By its end, Star Trek proves that these characters can outlive their former inhabitants. Chris Pine is now Captain Kirk, and Zachary Quinto is now Mr. Spock. It’s as simple as that. And they’re the same, but different. Pine exudes an insolence, irreverence and horniness that are unmistakably Kirk; at the same time, he’s a more erudite and driven young man than Shatner ever was. The same goes for Quinto’s Spock. Although a close physical match for Leonard Nimoy, this Spock is an intense new presence defined by his mixed heritage, battling to reconcile his human emotions with Vulcan logic (something that, disappointingly, Mr. Spock hasn’t done since the 1960s – this often wound up with a crazed Spock slapping Kirk around, which is always fun).

The remainder of the cast are each given stand-out moments in the film that redefine their characters for the 21^st century. Some work better than others; Chekov’s (Anton Yelchin’s) boyish eagerness to please is endearing, but the new wild-eyed Scotty (Simon Pegg) falls a little flat. Shining brighter than the rest is Karl Urban’s take on ‘Bones’ McCoy, the ship’s crotchety doctor. In a cast made up of bold new interpretations, Urban alone impersonates his predecessor (the late Deforest Kelley). But Urban is such a joy to watch that it doesn’t feel remotely cheap or lazy.

The Enterprise has also undergone a facelift. The bridge is all smooth, Ipod white surfaces, splashed with primary colours. This is a refreshing change from the cloying pastel shades of the past few TV series, with their living-room like bridges and Holiday Inn style crew quarters. This Trek isn’t afraid to be dirty either, the bowels of the Enterprise looking for all the world like they actually have something to do with engineering. The world of Star Trek is no longer limited to painted backdrops and cardboard sets – this universe is on a grand scale, complete with soaring alien skyscrapers, cavernous starships and space battles that actually feel dangerous. Budget well spent.

Aside from putting a big, big smile on my face, Star Trek’s greatest triumph is that it shrugs off that crippling condition of being a prequel, the foregone conclusion. By jerking around with time, the future of the Trek universe is undone, releasing any forthcoming films or TV series from the shackles of their own ponderous history. Simply put, the future is no longer written. As Spock says, ‘our destiny has changed’.

How cool is Star Trek? I would not be ashamed to take a date to see this film. It’s Star Trek, and I would take a girl.

9/10

-James