Star Trek (2009) Review

2. Star Trek (2009) Review

So after the doom and gloom of ZPG, you can’t get much further along the optimistic spectrum than Star Trek. As you probably know by now, myself and young Dave went to see a new print of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn at the Alamo South last night(Monday 6th April), and ended up seeing not just the new movie before anyone else in the world, but also the guvnor himself, Leonard Nimoy in person, and got some free popcorn. Anyway, many people have reported on the actual happenings that night, and many reviews have already spewed out. I’ve tried not to read any before doing this to keep my own opinion as virginal as possible, and am purposely staying as far away from mentioning spoilers as I can, as I realize most people won’t be seeing this for a month.

So was it better than Kahn? Well, no. But here is the thing, it was easily the best Trek film since First Contact and also arguably beats the Next Generations finest hour, plus the originals crews parts 4 and 6( Voyage Home, and Undiscovered Country), into second place in my opinion. This is already very impressive, but added to this fact is that now and again it also showed the potential to rival Kahn. All that separated it in my opinion is that Kahn had a great story arc with no fat on it, no waste. Everyone in that movie served a purpose, from the regulars- Spock’s sacrifice, Chekov’s duplicity, to the newcomers, David’s anger at his father, Saavik’s tutoring in how a real crew operate, and of course Kahns’s desire for revenge. The new film didn’t have this, but it had some great moments, and threatens a potentially awesome sequel. This was a revamp of a tiring/dying franchise the same as Batman Begins and Casino Royale served theirs. And if Star Trek can produce sequels that stay the course like Batman and Bond have managed then we may be looking at a good 5-10 year run of classic Trek movies.
For a start the opening was one of the most tragic but heroic moments in Trek history and almost makes the rest of the film play catch up in the emotional stakes. The set up of the characters ranges from the sublime- Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, to the clunky but still fun, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty. Originally when I heard that a young cast was going to fill these iconic roles I thought it would be a no win situation, rather like Gene Roddenberry’s mid- 70s idea of cadet era Star Trek that continued to pop up every time someone thought the original crew were getting too old/expensive in the following decade. It smacked of a desperation to appeal to ‘the kids,’ and also of the present love of prequels, whether necessary or not, and sounded more Butch and Sundance the Early Years, than Revenge of the Sith. Of course the problem with prequels is that straight away you know who is going to live or die, but this new film avoids this and sets up infinite future possiblilities in a very clever way. Also, I should have had more faith in J.J. Abrams, the cast are very well picked, not for their impersonations of the original actors but rather to remind us why we liked those characters in the first place. Spock and McCoy are almost spot on in this regard, while Kirk, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura are pretty damn good. The only one who falls short in my opinion, and it pains me to say this, is Simon Pegg as Scotty who seems to be playing it too broadly for comedy. When I think of Scotty, it’s amusing but more for his grumbled mutterings, but his strongest moments in the canon were his dramatic ones, think of his reaction to his nephew’s death in Kahn. It probably doesn’t help that some of the albeit minor flaws, appear when this character is around as well.
Basically I am nit picking for things that don’t work as I think the film is 90% successful. However for me while the tone was pretty consistent, every now and again it seemed to slip into worrying slapstick, which felt out of place, It’s great to see the Kobayashi Maru test, but Kirk’s overplayed nonchalance in this made me long for what a more sneakily devious Shatner might have made of it, Kirk’s hands and tongue, Scotty in the tube, or ,worryingly like Lucas at this worst, Scotty’s little Ewok mate. Along with these was Kirk’s slightly unbelievable promotion from suspended candidate to first officer, Spock leaving the captain’s chair open( yes, Kirk often did it but not this blatantly) to beam down to Vulcan, Scotty seemingly taking over the engine room after only just arriving on the Enterprise unannounced, and Chekov’s sudden brilliance at being able to beam people up. Even nice little homages to the series were sometimes slightly overdone. Sulu’s comment that his weapon’s training consist of fencing is great, but then when he produces a sword during a fight scene, it threatens to tip into cheesy. The other main flaw is that Eric Bana’s villain at least for me on a first viewing has a muddied reason for his actions, unlike ironically Khan’s, cut straight to the bone, reasoning. I still don’t know where Eric Bana’s Nero has been for 25 years not to be spotted by Starfleet- wouldn’t they have hunted him down after the U.S.S. Kelvin, and why he waited that long, to start his main plan, just so he could torment the older Spock.
However, if the movie doesn’t measure up to Kahn, and is probably unwise to ape it so much( the slug scene), like I say, there is more than enough good stuff for it to win out. It looks absolutely beautiful and the money is all on the screen- no repeated shots of Klingon warbirds from previous movies here. It looks retro but also cutting edge, the action scenes and fights are great and thankfully these days, not over-edited and the old timers of Cross, Ryder and of course Nimoy are perfect. I feel very lucky to have seen it under these circumstances with a great loyal Trek audience, can’t wait to see it at least one more time in the theatre and am really looking forward to the sequels. 9/10