Overly Positive

Spoilers for the New Star Trek Within!

Thanks to a promotion in the Chicago area, I managed to score free tickets to an early screening of the new Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams. I thought that maybe people would benefit from a little bit of a review if they’re not too concerned about getting spoiled that is.

Perhaps the one word that could describe the new, sexier, younger Star Trek is “reboot”. It’s pretty apparent from the get-go that this is a different Star Trek, and certainly, as it is old enough to say this is “not your grandmother’s Star Trek” either. Homages and similarities to the core cast of The Original Series abound, but the comparisons end there. Abrams took Star Trek and added in his own brush to the canvas, kind of like how a painter will be influenced by a work of art and make a new, derivative work from it in a different interpretation.

If you’re going into Star Trek with lowered expectations about how faithful it will be to the canon, you are taking the right approach. Core concepts of Star Trek, from the Prime Directive to Warp technology right down to the way the ships fire and fight with one another are all thrown right out the window, in favor of a fresher, newer take. Characters retain a template and trademarks of their predecessors, but other than that, the gates are open to all kinds of changes, which I’ll break down.

The story of this Star Trek, by itself, is rather stock. It’s your typical coming-of-age story where the Rebellious Kid turns out to be the eventual Savior, surrounded by a couple major characters who provide Foils and at least one Comedy Relief person. We’re not really talking innovation here in terms of plot. What the new Star Trek does do, however, is wrap the Star Trek recipe around it and then add a dash of spice for flavor. For example, Uhura’s romantic relationship with Spock, Scotty having an alien sidekick that would have threatened to unseat JarJar had hits screen time been increased, or Sulu somehow failing to enter warp drive but redeeming himself later with some “fencing” with a folding katana. For Kirk, we have a story where he foils a time-traveling villain while gathering the characters we all know and love, Superfriend/Justice League style.

With any other background or atmosphere, this is a recipe for a disaster. But with Star Trek, known for its technical babble, whimsical attitude towards continuity of plot, and cheese galore, this works. We know that when Kirk gets marooned on a snow planet with the Enterprise light years away, that he’ll somehow get back there. We know that when Scotty talks about “trans-warp teleporting” that it inexplicably is going to be used later on. We see Kirk and Spock do the whole “hating each other turning into respect and hilarity” dance and we still cheer for it. Even the original Spock’s presence, which basically turns out to be ridiculously contrived, is made more hilarious by the fact that the whole mess is  indirectly his fault. But we eat it up, because that’s what Star Trek is.

What this boils down to is, the homage and the nostalgia wrapped in younger, sexier packages is what really makes this movie great. It’s not the plot (too been there done that), or the characters (less deep than they could be), or even the action, which, by the way, is visually appealing but dizzying and confusing to watch ( and only really taught me that Federation starships apparently have two modes – “Stormtrooper-Accurate Firing Solution” and “Ramming Speed”). It’s the fact that Star Trek got an “extreme makeover” and that the young guns of the Enterprise can actually modernize and interpret traits from The Original Series while still respecting it. This makes for a distinct feeling from me of “better than I thought, and optimistic for more”.

The terribly convenient “alternate timeline” justification for what happened – you know, like the utter near-genocide of the Vulcans – opens the door to a lot of possibilities. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. See it, buy it, do what you have to do to take a peek – it’s one of your favorite foods fused with new-age cooking.

Thought it’d be helpful as a supplemental part to go over real quick what my impressions were on the characters:

Kirk: Honestly? One of the weaker performances – but maybe that’s because Kirk is not really a deep character and one that has received tons of interpretations in the form of many other “Rebel Hero” types. Just goes to show how much of Kirk really was Shatner, because the Pine version has the characteristic arrogance and smart-ass behavior but little of the natural charm. As for the character, it reads like a See Spot Run book. See Kirk rebel. See Kirk enlist. See Kirk flirt. See Kirk inexplicably make the decisions that somehow thread the needle no matter how unlikely. You get the idea. Still, there are bright spots, such as Kirk passing a supposedly impossible academy testing exercise by hacking it to change its parameters and the hilarity that ensues.

Spock: Spock would be better if it wasn’t for Sylar. Quinto’s trademark calm, soothing, and cold voice makes me think too much of the famous little head-slicer he portrays on Heroes. Still, as Spock. Zach does the character proud. The human element of his personality is decidedly more prominent, and if that wasn’t as obvious as a slap in the face, a scene where Spock almost “chokes a bitch” (the bitch being Kirk, of course) over the death of most of his people will do it. The death of nearly the entire Vulcan race by Black Hole Singularity will test the limits of Spock’s ability to suppress emotion, but other than that, Spock’s straight-man to Kirk’s colorful character is spot-on, with a few, mostly humorous jabs that are reminiscent of Nimoy’s treatment. Speaking of Nimoy, he really doesn’t count here – us geeks are all familiar with him by now.

McCoy: Easily my favorite of all the characters. DeKelley’s McCoy was a gruff, grumbly, grumpy old man with a harshly real outlook and terrible bedside manner.  Urban’s deal was to explore the early beginnings of such bitter, yet passionate moods. When you first meet McCoy, he’s about to throw up on Kirk, he’s going through a divorce, and he ticks off a litany of symptoms based upon air travel that make you immediately take to him. And that’s just in the first scene alone. Sneaking Kirk aboard the Enterprise by purposefully giving him a disease, sarcastically biting even in the most dire of situations (“With Dr. Pair dead, it appears you have now assumed the role of Chief Medical Officer” “Tell me something I DON’T know”), McCoy is every bit McCoy, and then some. It’s no surprise him and Kirk become fast friends due to their common, inrascible nature.

Sulu: If you thought the asian half of the modern Cheech and Chong couldn’t hack it alone, think again. Sulu doesn’t get much – but what he does get is decent, from the obligatory sword fight or the fact that he essentially is a last-minute substitution for the “real” pilot. Cho plays Sulu like you’d expect for the screentime, though he never really gets a chance to have any actual depth. Perhaps next time.

Chekov: If Walter Koenig hadn’t gone on to play such a great character in Babylon 5 (Alfred Bester), he’d probably facepalm over his replacement’s acting. The Chekov accent is so over the top you can’t help but wonder if Abrams really did recognize that Koenig actually has range and decided to ham it up just to show how easy it is. Sure, you have to throw in the obligatory pronunciation joke at the beginning, but aside from that, Chekov is simply slightly more intelligent than everyone else.

Uhura: The Original Series Uhura really wasn’t much more than just eyecandy, to be honest, and the tradition continues with the lithe Zoe Saldana. At first, this interpretation of the character seemed to turn me off – sexpots in sci-fi rarely work unless they are either talented or don’t care what people think of them. But as the movie unfolded, the added element of the romance with Spock makes this character deeper than it could have been. It might be interesting to see how that actually got started and with any traction.

Scotty: Now here is an example of a character with an accent you both do not get sick of and who also knows not to go too nuts for it. Simon Pegg really is talented, and I think he inherits the role from the deceased James Doohan quite well. The last fight scene in the movie has Scotty talking in the normal “I’m giving it everything she’s got, Captain” way, with dialogue that makes the user feel right at home. Aside from that, Scotty doesn’t have much to go on, unless you want to count the whole trans-warp thing.

So that’s that folks – go get your tickets – it’s definitely worth the watch if you can get to it in the theater.