Star Trek

by Rick Grant
Grade: A PG-13 126 min
It took J.J. Abrams visionary ideas and filmmaking savvy to go back to the beginning of the original crew and pull off a reinterpretation of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek vision. The carefully researched scenario was deftly written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtz man, who diligently stayed close to Roddenberry’s original TV series’ ideas.
The story takes viewers on a spectacular voyage from James Kirk’s wild youth of racing muscle cars, to how his special relationship with the younger Spock developed.
Chris Pine (Just My Luck, Smoking Aces ) portrays the brilliant young Kirk who was born the day his dad died. Like his father, James Kirk challenged the Federation’s wisdom by thinking outside the box and save the mighty Starship Enterprise and crew on numerous occasions.
Pine’s characterization was authentically real as one would imagine a young James Kirk to be portrayed. Abrams revved up the pacing that always dragged in previous Star Trek movies. The young director throttled the film up to warp speed.
In this story, a Romulan starship captain, Nero, (Eric Bana) hell bent on revenge, is determined to make Spock witness the destruction of his home planet Vulcan. He used a method of creating a singularity (black hole) that would suck up the planet from within as payback for what he perceived as Spock being responsible for destroying his home planet.
So, through a series of events, young Kirk takes command of The Enterprise and goes to rescue the federation starships flying into a trap.
Young Chekhov’s (Anton Yelchin) Russian accent is, at times, indiscernible, but he plays an important role in beaming up the survivors of the Vulcan planet’s implosion into the black hole. John Cho’s Sulu is reminiscent of the original Sulu. He partakes in a kung fu fight with the bad guys on a platform that shows off his fencing skills.
If only the original cast could have had today’s special effects with CGI recreating the battle scenes they would have come across with the same wit and genius as this recreated crew. The Enterprise bridge is an amazing set, brightly lit, buzzing with activity and advanced technology. As the Enterprise gets hit by incoming ordnance, the explosions are terrifying as crew members are vaporized by high energy plasma weapons.
Bruce Greenwood plays Capt., Christopher Pike, the Enterprise’s Captain when young Kirk comes aboard. But he proves his worth by predicting that the Romulans had set a trap and convincing Capt. Pike to take a different action than he had previously planned. Pike ends up a prisoner of Nero.
Abrams awesome version of Roddenberry’s Star Trek will amaze and impress both the hard core fans and people who were never into the original version. It’s a real movie action experience that has reinvented the Star Trek legacy without losing the witty banter between Spock, Kirk, and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy who is played with great respect for the original actor by Karl Urban. “To boldly go” never had such excitement.