Z/Web

Director: J.J. Abrams

The good news: several times during this film I sat back in my chair thinking, “Now this is Hollywood at its best.” This is the spectacular thrill-ride you can only get from a big budget Hollywood picture, and every required element — action, sympathetic characters, subtle nods to the Trek fans, inside jokes, classic scenes redone, space battles — is included as though checking items off a list. It’s certainly not boring, it’s tons of fun even if you don’t know the Trek universe, and if you do, unless you’re a really anal purist with no sense of progress, you should be delighted with what they’ve done here. It’s simultaneously an homage to the original yet it breaks new ground, making old characters feel fresh and new. They really should have called this “Star Trek: Reboot” because it definitely feels that way, especially the ending which brilliantly reopens the Trek world for new adventures with these characters without them tromping on the existing Trek history. That’s quite a feat.

The bad news: well, the climatic battle ending is pretty muddled (I’m still not sure what happened), and unfortunately not a lot of plot happens in this: it feels a bit like a TV pilot where all the characters have to be introduced and the story gets short shrift. Still, that doesn’t make it bad: it only means that now I really want see the next one! Like, right away. Next week.

The other interesting thing about this film is that the audience at the matinee I saw included a much older crowd that I expected. Sure, there were a lot of young people, but I saw lots of couples in their sixties. That’s fascinating. It makes sense since the TV show is over 40 years old, but it’s neat those people are still such fans they’d come out to a matinee on opening day! I had wanted to see the IMAX version of this but it was sold out, so I saw it on the regular screen, which was fine. (I may rewatch it on IMAX — I did that with Watchmen and that was pretty cool. I’m also curious how this stands up to repeated viewings: meeting Kirk and Uhura and Chekov and Sulu and McCoy and Scott and Spock and the others for the “first” time was a wonderful experience, but would it feel boring on the second viewing?

Speaking of those characters, I must say the casting and performances are brilliant. They went very young, almost too young, with many of their choices, which had me worried prior to seeing the film, but it turns out it works. Because they are so young they are similar but appropriately different from the characters we know. For instance, “Bones” (Dr. McCoy) mimics a lot of actor Deforrest Kelly’s mannerisms and voice, but it’s not so much as to be annoying or distracting: it’s just a hint, and they perfectly captured the birth of his curmudgeonliness, which makes far more sense than having him be the same character as on the original TV show (he needs decades to grow into that old geezer). The same for Scotty and others. There may be the odd casting choice you disagree with — it is too much to hope that everyone loves the entire cast — but I am very impressed and pleased overall. There are very few wrong notes here. Chris Pine, the young actor who plays Captain Kirk and whom I’ve never heard of, is actually quite good. He reminds me a great deal of Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films) — not the best actor, but his very newness and occasional awkwardness comes across as part of the character (James T. Kirk was not a hero overnight). I still need to see him in a real Trek film rather than a set-up vehicle like this one to see if he can really hold his own, but I think we just might have found a new William Shatner (and say what you like about Shatner, he is unique and special). Spock, of course, is arguably even more important than Kirk, and Zachary Quinto (the guy from Heroes) unbelievable. (In the scene where he and Leonard Nimoy are together it is astonishing how much they look alike.) I feel like I could have Star Trek without Kirk and just enjoy Spock, but this film actually reminds us how important a character Kirk is — Spock is emotionless and incomplete, too predictable, and Kirk provides the ideal foil.

Overall, it’s a terrific job: a fantastic reboot of the series and I sure hope they make a bunch more films with this cast.