Paradise Reel

Star Trek

Synopsis: This is NOT your father’s Star Trek.

Right off the bat, I’d like to say that THIS film is the most fun I had at the movie theater all year (so far). Granted, there will probably be some “Trekkies” who will form a lynch mob at the director’s front gate but at the bottom line, J.J. Abrams produced one of the most entertaining Trek films to date, considering the dearth of recent films from the franchise, it was mammoth task.

To be terribly honest, I was never a fan of all things J.J. Abrams. I was never compelled to catch a full episode of “Alias”, I loved the first season of “LOST” but that admiration dwindled quickly at the constant meandering plotlines of the rest of the series. “Mission Impossible III” was just an over stretched 30-minute episode. “Cloverfield”, which was produced by the man, felt like a gimmicky “Blair Witch Project” with a bigger budget. But with this reboot of “Star Trek”, I believe that Abrams has finally found a franchise that benefits from his style of direction.

By no means is JJ Abrams a bad director. There are a handful of blockbuster ‘auteurs’ that harbour little respect for the franchise they have been bestowed upon and have even less story sense (you all know who I’m talking about…) For Star Trek, Abrams managed to retain a huge chunk of the essence of what was the original series (TOS) as well as forge new ground in terms of Star Trek culture, all the while appealing to a wider audience than any of the other films ever could.

The special effects will be some of the best to ever grace any Science Fiction (Sci-fi) film, let alone a ‘Trek’ one. But its real stand out quality is subtly hidden in the spot-on casting of the movie. Every single cast member embodies the look and qualities of each of their characters perfectly. It also helps a bit that Zachary Quinto (“Heroes”) is a dead ringer for the Human/Vulcan cross-breed, Spock. And Chris Pine (“Just My Luck” and “Smokin’ Aces”) has an air of cheeky arrogance that gives his portrayal of James T. Kirk that much needed edge to set him aside from the “Kirk” that immortalized William Shatner (“Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, “Boston Legal”).

What Abrams and Co. has done was to hire actors who could play the ‘everyman’. John Cho (“Harold & Kumar go to White Castle”) lends his trademark uneasy grin to the role of helmsman Hikaru Sulu and Karl Urban (“Lord of the Rings” and “Doom”) brings his rugged charm to the role of Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy. These are the kind of actors that you could actually relate to and have a beer with in a bar on a Friday night, not the larger than life counterparts of yester year.

The main disadvantage to any ensemble film is the time that is allowed to flesh out each and every character. While “Star Trek” does try its best to allot adequate screen time to each of its’ crew members, at the end of the movie, you would find yourself wanting to know more about these inhabitants of the Starship Enterprise. Which I feel is a tip of the hat to the creators’ as we just cannot get enough of these characters. Even with their limited screen time, the director was able to infuse little nuances and weave a cohesive plot that elevates each character to more than just cardboard cutouts that populate the scenery.

Roberto Orci (“Transformers”) and Alex Kurtzman (“Mission Impossible III”) churned out a script (along with Abrams) that works on multiple levels. With this re-envisioning, I believe that they will be able to not only appease the fans but impress the average movie-goer as well. Previously, watching a “Trek” movie meant having a fellow fan of Trek (ie. “Trekkie”) explain to you the inner workings of Trek mythology to even remotely understand anything from the movie’s plot. But here, the writers chiseled 40 years of Trek mythos into bite sized chunks for the 21st Century audience which could have been both a good and a bad thing but at the end of the day, it worked.

The “Star Trek” franchise has always been for me a more ‘diplomatic’ version of “Star Wars”, where most of any movie would be to feature h eavily alien races and species discussing and debating over the morals and implications of their would-be actions, constantly questioning the role of ‘humanity’ in our known Universe.

Now, the movie is definitely not your father’s “Star Trek”. This “Trek” film dispenses with all the earlier trappings that started to bog down an initially intriguing concept and to inject a bit more high adventure and mystery. This film literally chooses to boldly go where no “Star Trek” film has gone before…