Perfectly Cast New Trek an Underwhelming Journey
The planet Vulcan is under attack. Recent Starfleet Academy graduate James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and U.S.S. Enterprise First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), not the best of friends, are part of Captain Christopher Pike’s (Bruce Greenwood) crew rushing to its defense.
Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in Paramount Pictures' Star Trek
What they find is a machine unlike any they’ve ever encountered before. More, the Romulan commanding it, Nero (Eric Bana), takes a special delight in knowing that Spock and Kirk will be amongst those witnessing the planet’s destruction. With time running out, the Captain captured and the ship in danger of spiraling out of control, Kirk and Spock must set aside their differences and figure out why this madman is so intent on making the pair of them suffer, the fate of all Starfleet hanging on the answer.
I do not have a problem with Paramount Pictures and director J.J. Abrams shuffling things up a bit where it comes to all things Star Trek. Lord knows creator Gene Roddenberry’s long-running franchise needed about of a shake up, the films in particular growing tired and forgettable in a way the original series (and, to a great extent, five of the first six films) never were.
What I do have a problem with is sacrificing plot for speed, for thinking that grand spectacle and a great sense of pop culture are all that you need to make a new journey with the crew of the Enterprise work. But that is exactly what this pumped-up reboot offers, and as pretty and as exhilarating as much of it is to call it anything else other than a glossy throwaway would be a disheartening lie.
Maybe I’m being a little overly-harsh because there is plenty about this new Star Trek to love, not the least of which is the casting. All the old stalwarts are here, and from top-to-bottom (more or less, I’m still not 100-percent sold on Anton Yelchin as Chekov) they fit their respective roles like a glove. Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), John Cho (Sulu) and especially Simon Pegg (Scotty) all make an indelible impression, and while none will ever make fans forget the original cast the potential for all of them to become just as wondrous a working unit is certainly in place.
But the true aces in the hole are Pine and Quinto. They don’t just hit it out of the park, the deliver the ball right out into the stratosphere. Both of them tap into Kirk and Spock so quickly and with such apparent ease it is almost impossible to figure out where they end and William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy begin. Their relationship has all the fireworks I’ve always imagined were there at the beginning for this almost inseparable pair, and watching that hardscrabble friendship develop over time should be a total joy.
So why am I so mezzo-mezzo on this new first chapter? To start with, I love me some Eric Bana but the guy is given nothing to do here. His Nero is a total wet noodle I could have cared less about, and while his back-story is potentially interesting Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers) spend so little time on it I almost had to wonder why he was even there other than to reset the timeline.
I also felt like the filmmakers were so committed to stuffing every single pop culture reference they could think of into the picture that they skimped on some of the character development. I admit sometimes these references made me chuckle in appreciation (just wait until you see what happens to the away team member in the red suit), but after a while they just got tiring. At a certain point what I wanted was more interaction between the iconic crew, especially the all-important triumvirate of Kirk-Spock-McCoy, while all I kept getting were more all-too-cute catch phrases carried over from the television series.
Listen, I am a total fan of the original crew and their adventures and I more than happily admit that. But just because that’s so I’m not perturbed by the idea of a complete makeover for the franchise. I just don’t think Abrams and company went for it near as much as they could. More, they’re so worried that non-fans won’t enjoy themselves they’ve put the entire film into warp drive to try and manufacture some faux excitement large portions of the plot don’t exactly call for.
I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy myself. As stated, the casting is excellent, and Abrams (especially after Mission: Impossible III), has become an expert at staging action sequences. I also think the movie opens spectacularly, this prologue as thrilling, emotional and enthralling as anything I’ve seen this year.
Unfortunately, I just don’t think it’s enough. While the potential for future adventures is strong this one left me more than bit cold, and while I was certainly never bored by any of it I can’t say – other than during that aforementioned opening – that I was ever sitting on the edge of my seat, either. While Star Trek does achieve liftoff that doesn’t mean it reaches the heavens, the final frontier far enough away Abrams and company will certainly have their work cut out for them when they re-up for the inevitable sequel.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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