Star Trek Review
After forty long years of duff (and occasionally great) Trek movies that failed to excite audiences outside the core Trekkie fanbase, can JJ Abrams manage to deliver a new beginning for the Starship Enterprise?
In many ways, he can. What’s most bizarre is that not only is this the first Trek movie that doesn’t feel at all like an extended episode, this also manages to straddle the bridge of being both a retro crowd-pleaser and an exciting action sci-fi.
The film begins a hugely exhilarating opening battle, seeing the Federation’s USS Kelvin is destroyed by a rogue Romulan vessel while a certain James T Kirk is born in one of the escape pods. From here, the film races along from one heart-stopping set-piece to another, pausing only to convey more character than any of the ten previous Trek films managed.
Chris Pine’s excellent Kirk is one of the highlights of the piece. Managing to convey Kirk’s rebellious nature, whilst simultaneously becoming a respected and trustworthy leader in his own right, the performance is downright, well, human. Likewise, Zachary Quinto makes the leap from TV’s Heroes with class and style, giving a delicious coldness to Spock’s Vulcan roots and bringing out occasional flashes of comedy gold for the more human parts.
There are some weaknesses here, though. Simon Pegg’s Scotty – noticeably absent for most of the film – is basically Pegg’s routine from M:I 3 just with a Scottish accent. Also, some action sequences feel crowbarred in for the sake of it – like Kirk’s chase by a monster and Scotty’s trip through the water pipes.
On the whole though, this is the best possible way to reboot a long-dead franchise – by bringing it right back to the start and reminding us all why we bothered watching Star Trek in the first place.
4/5
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