Review - Star Trek 2009

I’m not sure if i’ve been swept away in the hype about this film. I’ve been waiting quite a long time for this to come around and as a Star Trek fan I feel that my excitement would cloud my critical analysis. However after leaving the screening I felt that I was satisfied as a movie goer and as a self professed Trekkie.

My one criticism of the entire Star Trek franchise is that it has always taken itself far too seriously. When a non fan would sit with me watching the show they would laugh at the silly alien makeup or turn their eyes up at the overcomplicated plots filled to the brim with baffling scientific jargon. The last time Star Trek planned a comeback was thirty years ago with The Motion Picture, riding on the back of success of Star Wars, had television actors in a rigid plot that did nothing but further the series from the fun of space travel. Only a few of the Trek movies from days gone by have tried to bridge the gap between the die hards and the rest of the public, most notably Star Trek IV The Voyage Home (the one with the whales) which fell short of farce. I feel that now the wait is over. The trick that JJ Abrams had to pull off was to make a Sci Fi Blockbuster without dumbing down the content for the regular Trek fan and now after the flop that was Nemesis and the disastrous Enterprise he has found the right combination. To put it lightly, Trek has gained some serious chutzpah.

Where to begin? Visually the film is bursting with rich visual details. This is the Star Trek any discerning fan has always dreamed about seeing in a Star Trek film, exploding hulls with crew members being sucked out into space, planetary destruction that makes Alderann look like a party popper, even the nods to the original sound effects mixed in with iMac chic. The future has never looked so good. The costumes are wonderfully recreated for the big screen. In reshaping the Enterprise, the production designers have kept to the original essence of the kitsch 60’s feeling, something that should have been done in the Enterprise TV series.

One of the main tasks that the actors had to face was to portray characters that are much loved and known without turning them into over camped parodies of the originals. Chris Pine does a great job as the womanising rebellious Kirk. Whilst embodying the old Shatneresque traits of over cockiness yet Pine keeps it at a James Dean level rather than hamming up his performance. Qunito does an excellent job, playing more to Spock’s human side more than Nimoy ever did. This film recognises more than ever the internal conflict that is raging within Spock’s character. My highest praise however has to go to Karl Urban who portrays the old country doctor “Bones” McCoy. Urban doesn’t mimic the original Deforest Kelly performance yet he embodies the original essence of Doctor McCoy that we all know and love. It’s quite spooky at times. Sulu, Uhura, Scotty are all given new leases of life with their new actors. Be warned though, Chekov got a little too “Jar Jar” for me at times, almost becoming a shadow of Wesley Crusher, a Star Trek memory most of us would like to have placed in a photon tube and shot into space.

The music is scored by Michael Giacchino and surprisingly uses very little of the themes used in the previous incarnations of Trek. The opening blast of horns heralds the start of a new era for the series; only at the end are we given a sumptuous rendition of the Alexander Courage theme.

One of the great “Deus Ex Machina’s” within any Star Trek plot is the ability to use Time Travel to sort everything out and fix everything at the end of the day. Here the entire reboot of Star Trek uses temporal bending of the space time continuum to completely wipe the slate clean on the entire trek universe. It makes me wonder if in twenty years time they’ll reboot the Next Generation and DS9. Never the less given Paramount’s commitment to a sequel, we are assured that there will be further adventures with the USS Enterprise.

Though I know as I type many fans across the world will have differing opinions. All I can say is this. To those who dislike it, Star Trek will never die because of this film. The previous incarnations will be there on DVD forever and you can watch them again and again. Those memories will never fade. To those who did, well I can say that we needed a fresh pair of hands to really show the world how fun Star Trek is. You never know, it may become cool! This summer, I’m pretty sure it will.