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Star Trek
(2009)
I remember seeing this at the movies
and walking away a little disappointment. It was Star Trek for
Generation Y from its MTV like presentation to its sexy new crew of the
Enterprise. It was neither my father's Star Trek nor mine, however seeing
it again on DVD, my negativity somehow managed to dwindle and I was
sucked in... like an inevitable object in the path of a black hole. That
or maybe the half naked green alien Starfleet cadet grew on me.
Going boldly
where no director has gone before, director J.J. Abrams (Lost) has carefully
rebooted the Star Trek franchise and everything you thought you knew
about Star Trek is now unknown due to the creation of an alternate
timeline for the franchise. That's right, J.J. Abrams has created a new
canvas for the universe and things that are destined to occur may not or
they may. Yes, it's enough to get all the professors and Trekkers to
start debating but we're talking about whether this was a good movie or
not... right?
This movie is set before the original Star
Trek series and focuses on how the crew of the Enterprise first met.
Unfortunately, a Romulan called Nero, more specifically from 129 years
in the future has somehow managed to change the timeline of this current Star
Trek universe due to the destruction of Romulus and in order to fuel his
revenge, he wishes the "saviour" of his planet Spock, to see the
destruction of his. If you thought Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3 were
confusing, it's more on par with The Butterfly Effect and Donny Darko
but thankfully the average viewer does not need to get caught up in
this.
The movie begins with a thoroughly
impressive opening sequence that sees the father of James T. Kirk,
George Kirk jump
straight into mythology of Star Trek by saving not only the lives of his
crew but also his wife and unborn son. Unfortunately this is when
Nero first dabbles with this new timeline which will eventually ignites a
chain of events. Fast forward to a teenage Kirk and we discover that he
is a reckless teenager and as the story progresses, he is eventually
convinced by Captain Pike (from the original Star Trek pilot) to join
Starfleet. Still as reckless and brass as ever. Brilliant!
Eventually Kirk (Chris Pine) meets the next
generation of actors to play these iconic characters from Zachary Quinto
(Heroes) as the perfectly cast Spock, Zoe Saldana as gorgeous Nyota Uhura and
Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy. Needless to say J.J. Abrams done extremely well to choose the
actors to play his vision of Star Trek and even though the characters
are different than their original counterparts, it's subtleties such as
the smirk of Kirk or his arrogance that is extremely reminiscent of
William Shatner or Quinto with his quirks that mimic the original actor
to play Spock, Leonard Nimoy.
As we jumped back to the story, Nero is
granted his wish and he uses the red matter created by a future Spock
(Leonard Nimoy) which was to save his world to destroy Vulcan. And from
there, it's up to the sexy new crew of the Starship Enterprise to save
the day and create their own future. Unlike the previous and sometimes
politically thoughtful movies, this current version of Star Trek is
definitely heavy on action and even though its reminiscent of Star Wars,
it actually suits the mythology quite well.
Add in a variety of powerful scenes such as
Australia's Eric Bana to play Nero or John Cho as the perfect version of
Sulu and J.J. Abrams has been careful to keep certain elements of the
original characters but put his unique and modern twist on the
mythology. Sure it may alienate some hardcore Star Trek fans but J.J.
Abrams must be commended from turning a pop culture phenomenon into a
mainstream movie.
With stunning video and audio quality, this
2-disc collection boasts some in-depth commentary by the director,
writers and producers plus documentaries, deleted scenes and my
favourite, the Gag Reel which is just a few of the special features to
grace this collection. Very fun indeed.
Although I don't consider myself a Trekker,
I did hold the original TV series in high regard and it seemed like J.J.
Abrams destroyed much of what creator Gene Roddenberry attempted to do
but of course, we need to wait and see. It's just the start of the
series and how he managed to turn me around has left me baffled but boy,
was it a fun journey. All I can say is bring of Khan!
Special Features
Commentary by director J.J. Abrams, writers Robert Orci and Alex
Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk
A New Vision
Gag Reel
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
To Boldly Go
Casting
Aliens
Score
Star Trek D-A-C Free Trial Game for Xbox 360 + Weblinks to PC &
PlayStation 3 versions |
