When Nero (Eric Bana), a renegade Romulan with a grudge against a certain Vulcan, begins systematically destroying Federation worlds, the untested crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise--including Spock (Zachary Quinto), Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban), Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg), and a borderline-stowaway hothead named James T. Kirk (Chris Pine)--are the only thing standing between him and the annihilation of Earth.

CRITIQUE

I would like to buy J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci a steak dinner. Why? Because after more than forty years, six television series, and ten feature films, they finally managed to fix Star Trek. In the four decades it’s been around, this franchise has never really lived it up to its potential...until now.

After years of hippies in space, villainous space Lincolns, naïve politics, no real sense of danger, and characters who almost never evolved or were affected by events that should have devastated them, we finally got a Star Trek tale in which asses are thoroughly kicked, the characters actually evolve, and some really bad [expletive deleted] happens. Halle-frickin’-lujah! This isn’t the Star Trek I grew up with, but I wish it had been.

Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying all of Star Trek has been bad. Some of the movies have been damned good, and occasionally a decent episode managed to make it to air without being crippled by that weasel Gene Roddenberry (who, as Harlan Ellison once famously quipped, couldn’t write for sour owl poop) or one of his spiritual heirs. When Paramount yanked the movie franchise away from Roddenberry (who didn’t deserve half the credit he received over the last two decades of his life) and handed it over to Harve Bennett, it was the second smartest Trek decision they ever made.

The first smartest was handing the reins of this reboot/revamp/reimagining over to J.J. Abrams. What Abrams, who directed, and Orci and Kurtzman, who penned the script, have done was take the potential and essence and Trek and slap it on the canvas it always deserved. I can’t speak for anyone else, but the only reason I’ve had any interest in Trek (and by that I mean the original iteration; I’ve got practically zero interest in the follow-ups) is the characters.

The only reason I suffered through all of the space hippies, villainous space Lincolns, extraterrestrial Nazis, toga-wearing dwarves, extraterrestrial gangsters, contradictory philosophies, speechifying, heavy-handed symbolism and moralizing, and excruciatingly painful Melvin Belli cameos was to watch the main characters interact. The best of the original six movies (and by that I mean the ones that weren’t rip-offs of 2001 or The Wizard of Oz) took the characters, let them be themselves, and surrounded them with good plots. This movie does exactly that, but it doesn’t stop there.

This movie takes all of the characters we know and love, puts them on the road to becoming exactly who we know they’ll eventually become, and sets them against a threat that is both galactic in scale and extremely personal. A lot of the best, most memorable Trek stories have done much the same; look at Wrath of Khan or First Contact (although not even those two had the stones to destroy a major planet and kill off a major supporting character, events that are integral to the plot here and not simply gimmicks).

I understand time, budget, and logistical constraints, but what’s the appeal of watching people with the means to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other fight Nazis or gangsters? That’s the same problem I always had with the old George Reeves Superman show, which constantly had the freakin’ Man of Steel fighting guys who’d robbed banks or cracked open the safe at the track.

Trek needs a big backdrop against which to set its stories, and you get that here. Spacecraft zip back and forth between distant planets with ease (a notion which some took issue with, believing it fudged the science of faster-than-light travel too much; yeah, like protomatter and a warp drive that can be fixed by sticking your hands in and wiggling them around for a few seconds are hard science), the battles are grand in scale, and the interiors of the ships are either cavernous or packed from wall to wall.

But the scope never dwarfs the characters. And there’s no question these are the same characters we’ve known all these years; you can see all of their tics and quirks beginning to emerge, and you can see their histories being built. And a better cast could not have been found. Kirk has always been a dick, but he’s an extremely charismatic dick, which Pine absolutely nails. Urban is so good he almost seems to be possessed by DeForest Kelley. Saldana...sorry, I started thinking about her in that skirt and lost my train of train of thought.

Most origin and setup stories are marred by too much exposition, pokey pacing, and/or overlength. Not this one; this movie moves at a breakneck pace from beginning to end, ultimately seeming like it’s less than half as long as it actually is. Everything that didn’t absolutely need to be here was jettisoned, leaving the movie lean and sleek, a model for others to follow.

For example, combine the scene in which the young Kirk steals his stepfather’s car (the moment he switches on the stereo is the moment I knew I was going to love this movie) with the brilliant scene where the twentysomething Kirk is dressed down by Captain Pike (a terrific Bruce Greenwood); even if you’re completely unfamiliar with the character, Orci and Kurtzman’s writing tells you everything you need to know about him, condensing the first two decades of his life down to two brief moments that are pointed and revealing without being heavy-handed or artificial. That is great writing.

I’m not sure which was the better move on Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman’s part--going ahead and getting the time-travel story out of the way (every incarnation of Trek is required to have one) or creating a scenario that doesn’t negate the franchise’s history. I know some of the more vocal fans were up in arms over the notion that the events of this story effectively obliterate what’s come before, but it’s explicitly stated in the movie that what’s created here is an alternate timeline. So nobody has any reason to worry. Kirk still has a bastard son, Spock still has his brain removed by some crazy chicks, Scotty still helps a guy invent transparent aluminum, and Uhura still does a fan dance. (What I wouldn’t give to see Saldana recreate that scene...) So it’s all good.

THE VIDEO

As I sat in the theater watching this movie back in May, I started getting anxious for the eventual Blu-ray release, expecting it to offer up a stellar presentation. Those expectations have been met. The 2.40:1/1080p transfer--encoded with AVC onto a 50GB disc--showcases the movie’s distinctive visuals flawlessly.

It’s a smooth, beautifully detailed image; the constantly shifting color palette (the differences between the surface of Vulcan, the interior of Nero’s craft, and the bridge and hallways of the Enterprise are a study in extremes) is handled exceptionally well, and blacks are deep and solid. And despite a camera that refuses to sit still, there are no motion-induced anomalies. Heck, even those lens flares look great. Look for this one to end up a primo piece of demo material.

THE AUDIO

This movie’s sound design manages to be densely layered and subtle at the same time, a quality perfectly captured by this disc’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track; every nuance comes through. (Here that tribble in Scotty’s first scene?)

The audio is consistently active and atmospheric; the interior of the Enterprise is alive with the sounds of computers, sensors, and other equipment (listen and you’ll hear all of the classic sound effects), and the battles are every bit as explosive as you’d expect (love that phaser shootout inside Nero’s ship).

The low end is constantly engaged, either reinforcing the other components or thundering during the action; surround action is seamless. Dialogue remains clear throughout, and Michael Giacchino’s excellent score (it ranks right up there with Jerry Goldsmith’s classic music for The Motion Picture) sounds absolutely fantastic.

French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are also included; English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

All of the video-based extras here are presented in high-definition.

The sole standard extra on Disc One is a commentary by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and producers Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof. Recorded with everyone in the same room, this track is funny, has no dead air whatsoever, and is filled with good, interesting info.

Disc One is also BD-Live enabled. In this case you get access to a real-time NASA data stream.  

The packaging indicates that Disc Two is packed with 30 featurettes. That’s technically true, although the interface is designed to allow access to ten primary featurettes, many of which are loaded with “Branching Pod” featurettes you can access whenever a familiar icon appears on the screen. Those ten featurettes are:

To Boldly Go (16 minutes, 9 minutes of branching material) covers the genesis of the project.

Casting (29 minutes) covers, well, casting.

A New Vision (19 minutes, 3 minutes of branching material) looks at how the franchise--in terms of visuals, tone, and energy--was updated for world in which Star Wars ended up becoming the bigger sci-fi franchise.

Starships (24 minutes, 9 minutes of branching material) looks at the conceptualization and design of the new Enterprise (which is pretty sweet) and Nero’s craft.

Aliens (17 minutes, 8 minutes of branching material) looks at the design and creation of the movie’s non-human characters and creatures.

Planets (16 minutes, 5 minutes of branching material) delves into how contemporary earthly locations were turned into alien and futuristic worlds.

Props and Costumes (9 minutes, 1 minute of branching material) covers, well, props and costumes.

Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek (11 minutes) is an interview with the famed sound designer/mixer, who discusses how the sound effects for the movie were created.

Score (6 minutes) shines a spotlight on Giacchino’s work.

Gene Roddenberry’s Vision (9 minutes) is the obligatory tribute to the series’ late creator.  

Nine deleted scenes (14 minutes total) reveal, among other things, what Nero was doing for all those years he was waiting to have his revenge and exactly how Kirk managed to defeat a certain no-win training scenario. Abrams, Kurtzman, Burk, and Lindelof provide optional commentary for these scenes

A gag reel (7 minutes) provides the usual flubs and on-set wackiness.

A Starfleet Vessel Simulator supplies three-dimensional computer models of the Enterprise and Nero’s ship. You can zoom in on various sections, and graphic overlays provide detailed information on the design and function of certain components.

Four trailers close out the extras on Disc Two.

Disc Three contains a digital copy of the movie. Also included on this disc is a demo level of the Star Trek D-A-C video game, which is playable on an XBOX 360.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I apologize if I offend anyone, but I have to say this: [expletive deleted] the narrow-minded fanboys, [expletive deleted] the haters, and [expletive deleted] Gene Roddenberry. This is what Star Trek should be. No other movie this year has supplied this much sheer fun, and never in a million years did I expect to be saying that.