That New Car Smell (Star Trek XI (DVD))

Member Name: berlioz II

Product:	Star Trek XI (DVD)
Date:	16/05/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fun film in the spirit of classic Trek that should also appeal to non-fans equally

Disadvantages: Still has a feeling of being a prologue film more than anything else

Reboots are always a hazardous area. While they can help re-boost popularity within franchises that have grown stale, such as Batman and James Bond, they can also completely destroy the effects that the originals offered and attracted their popularity in the first place. At its worst, a rebooting can be just another facet of the overly rampant remake boom that takes popular or classic titles and remakes them into inferior versions of their predecessors, or then at their best they can actually re-energise a film series that in all their assets could be considered as being dead, to generate new fans for the franchise, yet at the same time not sacrifice the origins of what had come before. Therefore, it was with trepidation that I approached J.J. Abrams' re-launching of that one series of films and TV series that arguably holds the most fan baggage of all: Star Trek. Now Star Trek is one of those franchises that has a lot of history behind it, and a lot of it can be considered as a hindrance to the label "Star Trek" itself. Star Trek carries with it the stigma of "über-nerdom" and which is one of the reasons basic joes on the streets that consider themselves "normal" people outrightly reject the whole idea that they'd ever like something geeky like Star Trek, since they are normal people and don't care much about science talk and don't want to get mixed up with the greasy-haired, pimple-faced 30-somethings, who still live with their parents. This inevitably left Star Trek a dying franchise in the late-90s, and during this time, one by one, the different incarnations of Trek started to disappear; Deep Space Nine ended, Voyager found its cancellation, Enterprise never really got off the ground, and the final film in the series, Nemesis, was a dismal flop.

So the whole idea of going back to the very origins of Star Trek - to completely re-imagine the classic characters introduced in 1966 - was certainly a step that could have easily faced utter failure. And certainly the action-packed trailers didn't boost my confidence, but I have to say I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the film. Certainly this Star Trek is very different from what has come before, yet it is not a total hash job I was fearing it could have been. It's not a completely brainless action spectacle like most of these SFX-laden films tend to be (though make no mistake in saying it's a particularly intelligent film by any means), and while it certainly has a considerably faster pace and an emphasis on epic action numbers, it is also a very character-driven film on the whole. This is certainly an ensemble cast film where most characters are treated as generally on the same level, and it has a lot of the same type of synergy with the cast that the original crew had in the 60s TV series. Plotwise this is one of those films where one can't really say very much about it as a lot of it hinges on the convergence of one plot link to the next that ultimately unravels the whole thing as you watch it. But what I can say is that time plays a large part in it, much through means of alternate timelines and alternate possibilities based on the disruption of the space time continuum a la Back to the Future II, allowing the filmmakers a lot of leeway in their re-building of Trek lore without sacrificing what has gone before. Sure this can be viewed as rather a lazy approach in disengaging from the accepted Trek lore, but at least it still allows the existence of past Trek instead of outright dumping it in favour of a complete "re-imagining" like Batman Begins.

The performances are all uniformly good without being hammy or attempting to replicate the acting mannerisms of the original cast, which is certainly a good thing. Chris Pine as James T. Kirk is youthfully rebellious and runs around without much regard for protocol that may come across as a tad too disengaging from the more familiar Kirk character, but which is still adequately explained as something the yet-not-too disciplined Kirk might be like. Zachary Quito on the other hand plays an admirable young Spock, not yet quite in control of his emotions, nor having reached the philosophical tranquillity of Leonard Nimoy's characterisation, but still coming across very Spock like in many ways along with his struggling with his inheritance of being half-Vulcan and half-human. In many ways this is also helped by the appearance of Leonard Nimoy in his original role as an older Spock that draws in the stronger parallels that young Spock is still "young". However, one can't really say much on Nimoy's Spock in danger of saying too much, but Nimoy handles the role with quite the same strength he has since originating the character 43 years ago. The rest of the cast is admittedly more in a minor role despite the ensemble feel. In a way this is understandable as 127 minutes is still quite a short time to give the whole of a large cast equal opportunities to shine within the confined of also telling a story. Most every character are allowed their place in the spotlight, but in many instances these spotlights don't really return to them with as strong a glow too often.

Bruce Greenwood as the first captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, is very much the older mentor character that gives the spurs to the new protégé he sees the potential in. Karl Urban's Dr. McCoy is as much a curmudgeon as DeForest Kelley was, but isn't allowed to play the important part the character had as the third main titled cast member of the original series, being more of a minor character with a few lines here and there. Zoe Saldana's Uhura is a bit more sassy, and is even allowed to show some feelings toward another member of the cast, that oddly enough being Spock, and pretty much makes the most she can of the role as the main female interest. John Cho's Sulu and Anton Yelchin's Chekov are both allowed their moments to shine, though not much else, while Simon Pegg as Scotty is mostly a comic relief character, yet not in a silly way that makes fun of James Doohan's original performance. As the main nemesis of the story, Eric Bana as Nero is quite a decent villain, but unfortunately I can't see him as being anything more than a plot device that will allow the story to unfold in its new direction. Otherwise he isn't seen too much of and despite having potential to be a formidable opponent, he turns out as a rather weak character due to his under-utilization. We do get to know why he does what he does through a backstory explanation, but ultimately it doesn't raise him anywhere on the level of someone like Khan from the Second film, or General Chang from the Sixth film... or heck, even Soran from Generations. And this perhaps is the greatest failing of the film in that it is quite clearly an introductory episode; the film where all the cast is rounded together, introduced and, by the end of everything, they are all ready for their first, real adventure.

Scriptwise, it is quite delightful to note that Abrams hasn't simply decided to ignore Star Trek's past, and anybody in the know of Star Trek can pick up homages and references to the old Trek we know and love, from the appearance of the old characters, different quotes from the series and films, and it even includes the Kobayashi Maru no-win test scenario introduced in Trek 2 that Kirk managed to defeat, from which I got a big kick out of due to its historical significance in Trek lore. Of course one can very well enjoy this new film without knowing of these references, but for the fan they certainly add another element that makes the film considerably more acceptable with the way it goes about its way. Technically the film is as accomplished as many of these types of effects heavy films are, and the big, rumbling action moments are quite nice to look at without swamping the film by completely disregarding the story in favour of big explosions, something that many other such films are guilty of doing. However, I must say I utterly hate the new Enterprise. It looks awkward, badly proportioned and more like a strange hybrid of different Enterprise designs slapped together. Abrams reportedly wanted to make it look more like a "hot rod", but in all honesty it just looks bad - more like a rubber duck in space. Though admittedly it had some large shoes to fill in when compared to the original series Enterprise, or the swan-like grace of the Enterprise-A. Also the engineering department looks like it was mangled through some 19th Century steam punk ideology with all its pipes and gauches instead of something originating from the 23rd Century.

The cinematography is decent, if not hugely mind-blowing through its functional and modern application. The editing is also fairly fast-paced as one could expect from a modern action film, with a lot of camera movement shooting from one place to another in quick succession, but which still retains a cohesiveness of action that is good. The music of Michael Giacchino features a nice new theme, that is repeated often throughout the film, but somewhat suffers from a lack of development, even if this was out of design, while his Vulcan music (with emphasis on the Chinese erhu) is a slightly odd representation of the Vulcan culture, but is still passable enough. As Star Trek for a new generation of cinema goers, Abrams' take on the series is quite an enjoyable romp that is both entertaining, not needlessly "nerdy", yet not abandoning the origins of the original series. It must be said that at the same time the film is quite obviously just a start for a new series of Trek films and toward this end features a lot of quite fantastic coincidences, such as Kirk's discovery of the old Spock and Scotty on a planet he gets marooned at. Also the first scenes of the film pass with leaps and bounds from Kirk's birth and his father's death, him wrecking his stepfather's classic Corvette as a teenager, and then entering Starfleet on top of a bar fight several years later. Still, this is a truly positive surprise that is for once a rebooting that actually does work as a part of a larger whole. It should also appeal more toward the younger crowd who've always thought of Star Trek as too naff to care about, but it should at the same time please the old fans in its respectful approach to the saga's past. Even if this is still very much an introductory film, it makes me at least feel positive about the following entries in the upcoming series, something which I did not expect to really happen.

© berlioz, 2009

Summary: "I like it! It's exciting!"