Star Trek
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Audio interviews from the Star Trek World Premiere |
Group interview with Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto |
STAR TREK (2009) - film review
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Watch the third trailer that was released for the film. |
The question of what story to tell was critical to the new film. The last Trek film, 2002's NEMESIS, had been a critical and commercial disaster and THE NEXT GENERATION crew were whole-heartedly dissatisfied with the manner in which their feature film series ended. Abrams decided the best way to return the STAR TREK film franchise to success was to look to the characters that had turned Star Trek into a cultural phenomenon: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov. However, there was no way to bring the original actors back. DeForest Kelleys and James Doohan had passed away and , with exception of William Shatner, the other Original Series actors had kept a reasonably low profile, appearing sometimes at convent but mostly enjoying their retirements in one form or another. Abrams understood though, to legitimise the project he needed either Shatner or Leonard Nimoy or both. The newly-formed Story Council set about the task of creating a compelling story that would be attractive to either of the Big Two stars. Even more challenging was the idea that the new film's story would feature younger actor's playing roles so closely associated with people who had been recognised as playing them for over forty years. Despite this, Abrams and his team came up with a great story that paved the way for the roles to be recast and allow STAR TREK's spiritual Ambassador - Leonard Nimoy - to pass the baton to the younger crew.
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STAR TREK opens with a timeline-bending prologue that right-off-the-bat solves the challenge of introducing the new actors and sets-up a premise that provides Jim Kirk (Chris Pine) with all the motivation he needs to go on to become a great Starship Captain. In the film's opening sequence, the U.S.S. Kelvin is attacked by an unidentified Romulan vessel that has appeared from "a lightning storm in space". Aboard the Kelvin are Kirk's parents, one a Starfleet Officer, the other a heavily-pregnant wife carrying the unborn James T. Kirk. Out-gunned by the mysterious Romulan ship, Kirk's father decides to ram his adversary in order to buy time for the majority of his crew to escape in life pods including his wife. In his last moments, George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) saves his wife & newborn son's lives, names him Jim and tells Winona Kirk (Jennifer Morrison) that he loves her just as the Kelvin slams into the Romulans.
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The controversial teaser with an Earth-built Enterprise. |
After the prologue, STAR TREK jumps forward about ten years to a sequence showing both a pre-teen Kirk and Spock engaging in varying acts of rebellion that highlight both the similarities and differences the two will come to appreciate as friends later in life. It's a quick couple of scenes, but their importance in establishing both character's motivations give the film a narrative base from which to launch itself.
The story proper gets underway when Pine's Kirk is convinced by Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to join Starfleet after receiving a proper beating at the hands of a number of Officer Cadets. Along with Kirk, the audience is also introduced to Zoe Saldana's Uhura, Karl Urban's McCoy and, in a scene immediately following, Zachary Quinto's Spock. With part of the ensemble in place, Abrams is free to move the plot forward, eschewing any need to show any of the crew's Starfleet training other than the Kobyashi Maru simulation test made famous by STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. With the Academy's senior staff lining up to throw him out, Kirk gets a reprieve as an emergency at Spock's home planet of Vulcan mobilises all available starships, including the newly-minted Enterprise. This paves the way for Urban's "Bones" McCoy to sneak Kirk aboard the Enterprise and set events in motion that will bring the greatest crew in the galaxy together!
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Abrams dazzles the audience with a huge set-piece n the sky's above Vulcan, as STAR TREK ventures into new territory: high adrenaline action akin to a FAST & FURIOUS movie. Undertaking a dangerous high orbit skydive, Kirk, Sulu and the obligatory dispensable Red Shirt crewmen launch themselves to stop Eric Bana's Nero from dropping planet-consuming Red Matter into Vulcan's core. Elsewhere, Greenwood's Pike has all but sacrificed himself by going to Nero's ship in an effort to negotiate a settlement with the Romulan. All this comes to nothing. As Pike is tortured by Nero and Kirk's Away Team can't prevent the Romulans from Fire the Red Matter into Vulcan's planetary core. The sequence, as played out in the final cut of the film, is exhilarating for a STAR TREK movie and, for the first time ever, STAR TREK fans can say they have the kind of action normally only reserved for STAR WARS movies!
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Kirk meets McCoy for the first time. |
The aftermath of Vulcan's destruction is devastating. Spock's mother Amanda (Winona Ryder) has perished, millions of Vulcans have died and Nero is still at large wreaking havoc upon the galaxy. Kirk tries to badger Spock, who has assumed the Captaincy of the Enterprise. into undertaking a mission to confront Nero, but he's having none of it. Deciding he's had enough of Kirk's disruptions, Spock literally ejects Kirk from the ship; sending him to the nearby planet of Tau Ceti. It is here that Kirk encounters Leonard Nimoy's Spock, marooned by Nero to watch his home planet destroyed after he has come through a temporal anomaly created by the destruction of Nero's home planet of Romulus in another timeline. Thrown together by fateful circumstance, Spock convinces Kirk that he must somehow get back to the Enterprise and assume command of the ship. With no time to waste, the pair set off in search of help and stumble across Simon Pegg's Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott and his loyal assistant Keensa, played by fantasy film veteran Deep Roy. Despite the blatant contrivance of these three characters intersecting in this manner, the sentimental presence of Nimoy completely disarms the audience member. Abrams wisely and cleverly uses Nimoy's Spock to tie the narrative and plot together with one of the character's famous mind melds to communicate a huge chunk of exposition to Kirk and, essentially, fill in the blanks for the audience. It's clever writing and sets the film up for its Third Act without relying on Nimoy to take part in the action. Unknown to many at the time, Nimoy's pulmonary breathing disorder had started to take hold and the 76 year old had to be handled gently by Abrams and his crew.
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Nimoy's absence from the final section of the film turns out to be a blessing for the new crew, as each cast member gets time-to-shine as the Enterprise crew under Kirk's command for the first time go all-out to rescue Pike and stop Nero from destroying Earth. Pine and Quinto step up magnificently in the finale, sharing action hero status. The finale of STAR TREK is its biggest letdown. It's by no means bad, but it doesn't quite match the excitement, intensity and clever riffs on the mythology that characterise its first 100 minutes. The point at which Pine's Kirk assumes command of the Enterprise sees the movie set sail for the finish line with standard adventure movie action beats as Kirk rescues his mentor Pike and Spock turns the Red Matter used by Nero to destroy Vulcan upon the renegade Romulan and his mercenary crew. There's a sentimental, but unnecessary, scene between the two Spock's, but Abrams' STAR TREK really is about rebooting the Original Series characters and making them relevant 21st century cinematic entertainment. A mission that is achieved with spectacular success!
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Conflict between the crew was seldom seen in Gene Roddenberry's version of Star Trek, however, the origin story approach taken by the 2009 movie gave the writers a chance to include more interpersonal drama as seen by this clip featuring Spock interrogating Kirk & Scotty.
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STAR TREK (2009) - film review
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Everything is shiny & new aboard J.J. Abrams reboot of Gene Roddenberry's classic 1960s television series.
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The 2009 version of ‘Star Trek’ is a fast-paced action film, designed to appeal to a much broader audience than the core fan base. It’s really clear that Paramount Pictures, as with ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Transformers’, are hoping that this film is the start of a long-running film franchise, designed to make as much money as possible. (Who can fault them? I’ve been a fan long enough to know, it’s better to have a film every three years than nothing at all!) The film’s story takes a tried and true ‘Star Trek’ story conceit – time travel – and does a great job at coming up with the best big screen entry since ‘Star Trek IV’. Fortunately, the time travel is a starting point for the film, which the film does not dwell too much upon. It is only about two-thirds through the film that the time travel has to be revisited and a little exposition is required to tie up some loose story threads.
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The focus of this ‘Trek’ is the coming together of the original Enterprise crew. Previous ‘Trek’ had established some elements of how the crew originally came together, but neither the TV shows nor films had ever put it up on the screen. Fortunately for JJ Abrams and his production team, the casting of the seven main roles appears to be one of those “lightning in a bottle” occurrences where the actors cast as Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov are almost perfect. I really enjoyed Chris Pine’s ‘Kirk’. His performance brings a youthful swagger reminiscent of William Shatner while making the role his own. Pine is on the screen for more time than any other actor in this film and, by the end, I really wanted him to take his place in the centre seat of the Enterprise. Zachary Quinto makes a great ‘Spock’. His portrayal of the Vulcan starts out intense and builds from there. The dynamic between Pine and Quinto helps drive the film forward to its “logical” conclusion.
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The remainder of the cast turns in really strong performances; with Karl Urban as ‘McCoy’ and Zoe Saldana as ‘Uhura’ the standouts. One of the things I really liked about ‘Star Trek’ was its ability to surprise me. As a long time fan, I stopped being surprised by the TV shows and movies a long time ago. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the shows and movies, but the storytelling became predictable. This film has a few surprises, and it it’s clear that JJ Abrams and his production team are not afraid to take chances with ‘Star Trek’ canon to create a more enjoyable movie for their audience.
I strongly recommend that fans, and non-fans, see this film on the big screen while it’s in first release at the cinemas. It’s a ‘Star Trek’ film that’s more than just another entry into a long-running film and TV franchise. It’s fresh, it adheres to ‘canon’ where it needs to, and it’s an entirely enjoyable piece of escapist entertainment.
Star Trek (2009) - Production Images
The crew of the rebooted Starship Enterprise:
Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Kirk (Chris Pine), Scotty (Simon Pegg), McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) listen to Spock (Zachary Quinto) off camera.
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Star Trek (2009) - Production Posters
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