Kim Gentes

Boldly go where no prequel has gone before.

Summary: Instead of patronizing us with a film to placate the trekky hordes, this film completely revamps the Star Trek legacy, giving us grit, humanity, plot believability and fantasy in what used to be a one dimensional world of trek-dom; a triumph of what can be possible with a great filmmaker at the helm.

Review: Writing a new movie for a decades old iconic franchise is the pivotal "chance-of-a-lifetime" for any director. And few succeed. But JJ Abrams is no ordinary director. His prestine vision of the ultimate rebirth of the Star Trek universe infuses, above all, a powerful humanity into the long-loved science fiction yarn.

For over 40 years the legacy of Gene Roddenberry's story has conveyed many things- fantasy, fiction, technology, adventure, characature and time travel.  But rarely did you see much more than characature and stereotype in the development of the cast.  This may seem strange given the cast, but we found each member of the Enterprise to ultimately become one dimensional place holders that allowed for a plot driven TV show that lived on twists and technology to keep us interested.  Character development was never a strong suit of the franchise.  It was attempted moreso in the follow-on movies of the last 3 decades, but never ascended to become more than enhancements of the originals: an arrogant Kirk, calculating Spock, acerbic Bones and mindless Checkov (etc).  

Then comes this new Star Trek, told to us this time from the man who brought us the best movie of 2007 (Cloverfield)- a movie he shot (seemingly) entirely through a single camera- and pulls it off with flying colors.  Abrams is always reaching to pull in the viewer, making everything human, flesh-touchable, gritty.  He succeeds in Star Trek (2009).

Kirk becomes pretentious and arrogant, but fraught with that same guise as a mask to his own failure and pain. Bones is acerbic, for sure, but we gain a look at his real life that exposes those origins. Most of all, we see Spock.  A Spock that is far more human than he ever has been.  Strangely, this makes his Vulcan story seem far more believable.  You grasp his story, you believe it, and you love the ride it takes you on.  But let's be clear- this story is about the rise of James T. Kirk.  It's his human path to a starry, almost super-human stature as the pre-eminant character of science fiction lore.

It's perfectly done, very well acted, and a great adventure tale to boot.  There have been rumblings of "true trekkies" that have dissed the film.  I expected as much.  The vitality of the tales have never been more brilliant in this new film for Star Trek, but we have left behind the plastic, inhuman characters that the original series had given us.  A welcome change.  If you even remotely like sci-fi, this film will delight you.  See it in the theatres, as the shots and action are very engaging.

(I have to say it... even if Nemoy won't!)

Live long and prosper!

Review by Kim Gentes.