Star Trek

Producer/director J.J. Abrams (Lost) has brought in the first summer blockbuster of 2009.  His new film Star Trek captures the feeling of exhilaration and possibility on which the original franchise was based, and finds exciting ways to reintroduce us to characters we’ve known for years.  James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Keith Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Sulu (John Cho)…they’re all here.  And, what’s more, they’re impossible not to enjoy, just like old times.  The script, by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (MI: III, Transformers), is a well-crafted origin tale, replete with action and adventure in the depths of lycra-jumpsuited space.  Of course, any group of protagonists as peppy as this group needs a serious nemesis, and Nero (Eric Bana), a psychotic Romulan from the future bent on revenge, is just the ticket.  The particulars of the story arc are incidental; the point is that we get to watch the old (now young) crew in their formative days, fighting alongside one another and engaging in multiethnic banter of the finest quality.  Still, while Kirk and Spock are undoubtedly the main figures in this intergalactic drama, the extent to which their characters are developed is fairly superficial. Suffice it to say that Kirk spends most of the film getting punched in the face, while Spock struggles to suppress one emotion after another.  Both of these facts serve as shorthand for the inner psyches of the characters. Make no mistake about it:  This is an action film, through and through.

Not surprisingly, then, the visual effects are perhaps just as important in this spectacle as Kirk and Spock.  Production designer Scott Chambliss does incredible things with Nero’s colossal ship and transforms the bridge of the Enterprise into an incandescent chamber of frenetic energy. From ice planets to Vulcan shrines, the environments he creates are visually arresting, and achieve an interesting combination of new and retro looks. Similarly, the effects by Industrial Light and Magic are outstanding.  The task of creating a world that actually predates the Star Trek universe (and is therefore technologically inferior) while still making it captivating to look at is a tall order, and the fact that they’ve done it so well is a tremendous boon for the entire film.

After the action is over, though, it’s easy to see why the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation came into being.  Unlike the original series and this film, Next Generation was an intensely cerebral program in which fighting was only rarely featured. For fans with an abiding love of intricate warp drive discussion, internal ethical debate, and nerve-wracking psycho-drama, Star Trek will probably be a little disappointing.  The real goal is to provide an exciting time for everyone who watches, whether or not they know about red shirts and green women, and in this endeavor it definitely succeeds.

                                       Orson Robbins-Pianka