I must admit I had my reservations about director JJ Abrams helmed Federation and his choice of a young Captain Kirk. Firstly I knew JJ was not a fan of this legendary franchise and would have thought his friend Joss Whedon rather better kitted after seeing the brilliantly done “Serenity” which was Jonathan Ross’s and BBC’s viewers film of the year for 2005 beating Batman Begins, Star Wars Episode Three and Sin City. Whedon of Buffy, Angel and Firefly fame would have been an apt choice for this film but I guess after Serenity’s poor showing at the box office and the scars from his outing with Alien Resurrection he was left back on the small screen to deal with Dollhouse.
While JJ was not a fan, he revisited this franchise starry eyed and brought back all the ingredients that made one a Trekki, yet at the same time injecting warplike wonder that made you fall in love with the early Star Wars trilogy as well, which can only lead me to think that he was a fan of that rather. He did this artfully and skilfully, adding that visual brilliance but remaining faithful to the Star Trek galaxy that was Gene Rodenberry’s, never Lost in translation. His choice of writing duo, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, to write the script, who worked with him previously on Alias, Lost and Fringe proved an equally magical force. Fresh from writing the two titanic Transformer movies they submerged themselves in Trekki culture to find out what makes Trekki’s beep and have hit the button so to speak.
Chris Pine comes into his own as the Young Captain Kirk doing his “I go where angels don’t dare thread” bit with his own swashbuckling swagger. He banters and bamboozles in the grand everyman tradition you want to see. This really goes on to re-boot my theory that the wooden like Hayden Christensen could have done with an Hans Solo like character to play off in the Star Wars prequels he was in, it is in those characters like Kirk himself that we do relate and no amount of emotionless Jedi’s could replace, not even a Jar Jar Binks, the useless salvation of gravitational befuddlement. Besides when getting a glimpse of Star Fleet Academy and with regards to the Hogwarts School in Harry Potter, you have to feel that George Lucas missed the spaceship with regards to Jedi School, ah well, he had the power, mind moving stuff but back to this space odyssey.
All the old favourites were back with new trajectory and they took to the bridge with much pomp and ease. Mr Sulu comes in the Gung Ho guise of John Cho from Harold and Kumar fame. He does as much as he can do but I am sure much more is reserved for him in future outings with regards to personality. Chekov was funny but in a guilty sort of way, throwback humour to the Star Trek of old. Dammit! Bones was good but he is not a doctor but an actor. Karl urban played the part to clichéd perfection, constant frowning and forced outbursts as if in a parody of the movie suiting his character just fine. Simon Pegg as Scotty went one up on his predecessor and made this quirky role his own with his varying brand of witty remarks. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura is back, beautiful and brainy with much emotion including a love interest to surprise in the mould of Spock. Our Vulcan is played by Zachary Quinto from Heroes and did he do old Spock proud? So much so that the grand old Vulcan himself, Leonard Nimoy, chose to make a re-appearance of nostalgia, much older but loved always. Quinto is Vulcan brilliance and humanly endearing, his early sparring with Pine beams you back to previous timeless moments of other Star Trek movies, priming you for future classic camaraderie. For me the whole excitement of this movie, the build-up, the story, the score, special effects, cinematography and grandiose of it all left me actually bypassing Eric Bana’s portrayal of Nero. He did what he did well in terms of being the movie villain without thwarting this cosmic movie in the least bit, except maybe for this Star Trek’s alternate Universe. JJ has gone where this fan had wanted him to go and got me hoping this is not his final frontier.
After watching Wolverine claw its way to the top of the box office and enjoying it as pure popcorn bliss, I can beam and say that Star Trek is light years ahead in terms of a movie, utilising the best bits of its own franchise history and classic touches of other box office spectaculars in getting the best ‘wow’ factor from audiences old and new. JJ’s cryptic use of reflecting light on the camera lens sparkles imagination and puts you firmly in the Enterprise yet leaving you all buckled up with no where to go at the final credits. And that my fellow Trekki’s is a good sign because we are only at the beginning of what is going to be a fantastic voyage in Star Treks film history. For now, I will go start a group on Spacebook petitioning for this movie to be translated into Klingon so that it may be made available with Klingon subtitles and not dubbed with silly humans moving their lips stupidly to beautiful Klingon dialects.
P.S. I hope Tobey Maguire uses the same writers and approach when producing Robotech since he has the rights for it.
P.S.S. Oh and hopefully never casts himself as Rick Hunter.
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