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The first Star Trek movie I saw, I was dragged to kicking and screaming to by my parents.
There were some tears involved as well. The thought of sitting through a Star Trek film was worse than sitting through Arnold Schwarzenegger's tour de force "Jingle All the Way." But with J.J. Abrams' franchise re-boot "Star Trek," all of the reservations melted away and luckily, they were for good reason as "Star Trek" is the kind of movie that was meant to start the summer cinema season.
Exciting, exhilarating, and, holding a strong emotional pull within it, "Star Trek" is not only a great summer movie, but a great piece of film.
Where last week's opening of "Wolverine" fell under the pressure of the origin tale and the weight of heavy handed action scenes, "Star Trek" uses the prior knowledge of the audience to pull them deeper into the picture and is pitch-perfect in its action scenes. Even as the Enterprise slowly evades drifting debris, there is a satisfying tension to the moment.
While the audience knows that all the characters are going to make it through this crisis, it is never a matter of danger, but of the excitement of seeing them evolve into the people they are going to be.
It is hard to not crack a smile as Dr. "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban) yells out his trademark line, "Dammit, I'm a doctor, not a physicist" and know that while he is young, the man is still there.
The action scenes give a reason to showcase a characteristic of a character. An early alien fist/sword fight shows that Sulu (John Cho), who had earlier appeared to be incompetent, is actually a skilled fighter.
The end of the same fight also shows the wunderkind abilities of Chekov (Anton Yelchin). Starship battles allow Jim Kirk (Chris Pine) or Spock (Zachary Quinto) to show their prowess in leadership. The people that these characters are going to become are continually bubbling under the surface.
But at the same time, the characters are the actors' own, not hampered by the performances of the past. In a wise bit of writing, a bit of time travel introduces moviegoers to a Star Trek world that's a tad tweaked from the one fans have been accustomed to for decades. This allows Abrams to play with a few new things.
He allows Pine to play Kirk as a bit more angry, not merely a horny, fun-loving cowboy, but a horny, borderline reckless rogue that takes chances no one else will. Selecting Pine was a strong piece of casting, for his Kirk has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, out to prove that he has what it takes while simultaneously trying to show that he doesn't give a damn. But in pure Kirk fashion, he isn't one to pass up chasing a skirt, which he does with charisma as he spouts a "Hey there…" to every girl who passes his way.
In a nod to the old show, his lone conquest of the film is a green alien babe, the most recognized symbol of Kirk's love of alien women.
The counterpoint to Pine's Kirk is Quinto's Spock. The way Quinto looks in the full costume, it is as if the filmmakers went back in time and plunk Leonard Nimoy (the original Spock) from the time of the original show.
Yet part of the appeal of the character of is that he is half-human, his alien race, the Vulcans, a race of purely logical beings.
But because of his humanity, Spock grew over time to accept that logic is not always the right way. Quinto embodies Spock with ease, playing him at his most logical as he is still young and his eventual friendship with Kirk has yet to convince him to embrace his human self.
The only really noticeable problem is Abrams' camera work.
Known for the shaky camera of "Cloverfield," which he produced, Abrams has a tendency to treat the cinematography like it is has no knowledge of what is going to happen next. The camera shakes more times than is needed, and at times makes the film feel like it is being handled by an Enterprise crew member.
There are several moments where the camera pans across the room as if it is shocked that the character is going to speak. Additionally, there are unnecessary close-ups that appear as if the camera just found the person or starship after losing sight of it during the previous action. This is out of Abrams continual practice of making ideas huge, but execution small in scope. In this instance, it doesn't work for the film.
But these complaints are small. "Star Trek" is fantastic and a step in the right direction of all these recent re-boots and summer popcorn flicks.
There's been a trend over the past few summers to add emotional depth to the big blockbusters. While some have failed miserably ("Wolverine") and some have risen to the occasion ("The Dark Knight"), "Star Trek" fully pulls in the audience and makes them care for these characters outside of the nostalgia most have for Gene Roddenberry's universe.
Simply put, "Star Trek" may be a look into the future of humanity, but it also looks to the bright future of summer cinema.
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