Cinema review
Directed by JJ Abrams
Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Leonard Nimoy
Release date 8 May 2009 (UK)

Impetuous rascal James T Kirk (Pine) enrols at Starfleet Academy where he joins the likes of half-human half-Vulcan Spock (Quinto) and cantankerous doctor McCoy (Urban). When news reaches Starfleet of trouble off the Vulcan homeworld, the new recruits jump aboard the Enterprise to investigate. On arriving they find that rogue Romulan Nero (Bana) has launched an attack on the planet…

There are many franchise firsts in JJ Abrams’s Warp-powered reboot, but perhaps the most unexpected is that this is the first Star Trek jaunt to boast a Beastie Boys song on the soundtrack. The sequence in which a kiddie Kirk zips along the highway in a sports car to the rock-yapping sound of ‘Sabotage’ should be cringe-inducing. Yet, strangely it works; it’s a fun, brilliantly edited scene that sounds the unmistakable cry: Star Trek is cool again.

This is a movie that badly needed to restore some credibility to the franchise after the soporific Insurrection and Nemesis, which simply felt out of place on the big screen. But Abrams had the gargantuan task of reinventing Star Trek without alienating the core audience that made it such a bankable franchise in the first place. Perhaps against all odds, Abrams has done a decent job. Star Trek is a witty, dynamic, sexy brand of blockbuster that should plant galaxy-spanning grins on the faces of Trekkers and rookies alike.

Star Trek’s plot trigger, centring on barmy Romulan Nero’s quest for revenge, is hardly mould-busting. Eric Bana is an actor with the dramatic chops to turn Nero into an effective, brooding, teeth-gnashing villain, but the character simply doesn’t have the depth of a Khan or a General Chang. But then this was never going to be a movie about the villain. The Romulan’s devious plan instead provides the perfect jumping off point to send the fresh-faced cadets off on a perilous (and for some of them life-changing) mission that sees them gradually morphing into the crew we know and love.

As with his hugely enjoyable Mission Impossible III, Abrams keeps the expensive action moving at a furious pace. It’s so fast, in fact, there’s barely time to take in the gaping plot holes (just what has Nero been doing in the 25 years since entering the vortex?) or absurd coincidences (witness an exiled Kirk handily bumping into a familiar face on an inhospitable planet). The script, from Transformers scribes Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, is a much less flabby affair than their giant robot opus. From an early barroom brawl to a futuristic bout of skydiving, they deliver air-punching moment after air-punching moment, while a monster chase on an ice planet suggests that Star Wars was just as influential as Star Trek.

Nevertheless, devoted Trekkers should rest easy: the writers haven’t entirely dunked 43 years of mythology. From allusions to movies past (check out the ceti eels or the Undiscovered Country-esque floating blood globules) to familiar lines (“I’m a doctor not a physicist!”), there is plenty here to have fans knowingly spluttering into their popcorn. But importantly these references are subtle enough to be unobtrusive to those viewers who don’t know their Borg from their Bajorans.

Equally subtle is the way that Pine, Quinto and co invoke their crinkly counterparts. Instead of dumbly aping the voices and mannerisms of the original actors, the poster-friendly new cast are true to spirit of the characters while imbuing them with entirely new dimensions. Chris Pine’s Kirk is fresher faced and more troubled than we’ve seen before, but look closely and it’s possible to detect the spirit of a young Shatner creeping into the occasional mischievous smile or quip. Zachary Quinto, meanwhile, has always resembled a young Nimoy, and here he makes for a note-perfect Spock, ensuring the half-Vulcan is a likable, compelling fellow despite his relentlessly stoic nature. Perhaps surprisingly it is Karl Urban who’s the real standout as the irascible, dry-witted Bones McCoy, displaying a level of charisma virtually impossible to detect in his last high profile movie, the soulless Viking/Native American mash-up Pathfinder.

Admittedly, Simon Pegg is less subtle as chief engineer Scotty. In fact he’s wildly, staggeringly, monstrously over-the-top, playing the character entirely for laughs. But then the same could largely also be said about James Doohan’s original incarnation (especially in the first six Trek movies). Some will undoubtedly find Pegg’s engineer profoundly irritating, but for better or worse comic relief characters like this have been a Hollywood staple since the dawn of the blockbuster, and Scotty does form enough of a rapport with Kirk to ensure that he doesn’t feel entirely out of place.

And then, of course, there is Enterprise’s resident sexpot, Uhura. Zoe Saldana ensures that the character remains a strong, integral part of the crew, but the chief communications officer is also sexier than she’s ever been before: fanboys should prepare themselves for their first opportunity to glimpse Uhura in her underwear…

This was never going to be a movie that would please everyone. Inevitably some fans will bemoan the tweaks to the timeline or the hyperactive editing. And there are others who simply won’t go and see a movie entitled ‘Star Trek’, even if it is stuffed with a good-looking young cast and marketed as “From the makers of Lost and Transformers”. But surely most audiences will see Star Trek for what it is: a rambunctious and often very funny sci-fi spectacular that has hopefully fired up the franchise for a long time to come. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
Skilfully walking the line between the old and the new, Star Trek is - cliché alert! - definitely set to stun.

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