Film Review: Star Trek 2009

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet seen this film, please go and do so before proceeding.

            I am just going to be honest and tell you all up front that I am not a Trekkie. Oh I enjoy the show, no doubt about that, but I am more a casual watcher than a definite fan.  Bear in mind that I am going into this as a casual fan who loves the characters and the world, but can neither speak Klingon nor explain all of the different theories on how warping might work. So I'm not going to be ranting about all of the ways that this movie may or may not have destroyed the integrity of TOS. I'm just not.

            Now that I’ve said all that I will rush to assure you all that I was excited for the new reboot of the Star Trek franchise whenever it was first announced. I was looking forward to seeing a fresh new take on the Enterprise crew and hoping that this film would succeed in the task of introducing a whole new generation to the final frontier of space. Did it? Well…kinda?

Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- The film starts out well enough with a long, panning shot of the USS Kelvin, the ship captained by a man named Robau, as it glides through space. Almost immediately the action starts as we see a mysterious lightning storm that has a massive ship, which oddly resembles a metal cuttlefish, protruding from its depths. This is a highly advanced ship with weapons capable of penetrating the Kelvin’s shields. In no time at all Captain Robau is killed, after claiming quite rightly that he knows nothing of ‘Ambassador Spock’ and First Officer George Kirk orders a ship- wide evacuation. Okay, so pretty standard procedure and a fitting beginning for a sci-fi action film. And then the stakes just shoot right through the roof with the introduction of Kirk’s very pregnant and in-labor wife, Winona.

- Yeah. That was the moment when I knew that he was doomed. It was a no-brainer that the autopilot would fail and that Kirk would sacrifice himself so that his wife and crew could get to safety. But, I have to say that it works. This is one of those clichés that, no many how many times we see it; it has yet to get old. Granted it does rely on good direction/editing and some more-than-decent acting…but in this particular instance we have both so it works a treat.

- I found myself surprisingly invested in these characters even though the actual amount of screen time they had was less than fifteen minutes. The emotional payoff was there as was a general sense of epicness that sacrifices like Kirk’s tend to generate (particularly when someone spends their last moments naming their newborn son that they will never get to see). By this point I was completely invested in the film and I have to admit that it gave me chills to see the Star Trek logo on the big screen. So far this Star Trek is shaping up to be amazing! What could possibly go wrong?

- Well, before I start talking about all of the bad I want a chance to say that there were some things I enjoyed very much about this film. 

- The special effects (lens flares and all) were incredible. The future world looks very crisp and clean.

- I loved watching the contrasting childhoods of Kirk and Spock. This film really plays up the turmoil that Spock goes through as a half-Vulcan and it is amazing how both Jacob Kogan and Zachary Quinto managed to both pull off Spock’s impassivity while still showing all of the human emotion through their eyes alone. 

- On the subject of acting, everyone in this film is simply incredible. Each cast member has managed to incorporate all of the nervous ticks and mannerisms of the original actors into their performances and yet have made the characters fresh and new and completely their own.

- I loved the relationships between the characters. Most of them worked perfectly and it was fun to see the family come together over the course of the film. There were some moments of subtle humor (most notably when Kirk first meets Uhura in the bar) that actually got a smile out of me and it was fun to see Kirk start out as a rude hothead and slowly throughout the course of the story grow and mature as situations force him to be something other than a delinquent. The animosity between Kirk and Spock was also good. After Kirk connected so well with Bones it was necessary for him to have someone from the Enterprise lot that wasn’t instantly all buddy-buddy with him and Spock was the perfect choice. Not only was that negative relationship necessary, but it only made the later camaraderie that the two would eventually build seem all the more strong.

- So that’s the good. Now let’s talk about the bad...

- First off, the plot is in a continual state of jumping about. For about the first third of the film everything is okay; we have the death of Kirk’s father, the childhood of Spock and Kirk, Kirk joining up with Starfleet and meeting Bones and Uhura, Bones sneaking Kirk out on his first mission and a frankly awesome shot of all the destroyed Starfleet vessels, and finally the destruction of Spock’s planet and mother by the Romulans. But then Acting Captain Spock maroons Kirk on an arctic planet where he runs into an older version of our favorite half-Vulcan who is played by none other than Leonard Nimoy. This is where the film loses me a little bit. It is almost like they are trying too hard to reconcile this reboot with the original franchise. 

- The alternate universe stuff, aside from being exceedingly convoluted and bewildering, just seemed like an excuse to include Nimoy as a means to say “See, see? It’s still the Star Trek you knew and loved! Never fear, Trekkies, Abrams is here!” Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see Nimoy back as Spock. I just wish it had been for something other than a crossover between Rise of the Cybermen and The Wedding of River Song. Nothing about this worked and it completely lost my interest mere moments into the exposition-loaded talk between Kirk and Spock in the ice cave. I guess I wouldn’t be so upset if it was just the idea of an alternate universe that we were talking about because the whole black hole portal idea was pretty cool. No...what gets me is that the only thing they really did with the alternate universe idea was to justify this movie’s timeline and employ a deus ex machina via older!Spock’s foreknowledge. The moment where he beams Kirk and Scotty (who is an awesome character, by the way) onto the warping Enterprise is but one example of the get-out-of-jail-free card that poor Spock has been reduced to.

- Another example of the lack of focus is the whole Kobayashi Maru situation. I thought that the idea of an unbeatable test designed to show captains in training what it feels like to be faced with a no-hope situation was a great idea, and the fact that Kirk cheated just to beat it was interesting in that it showed how little he understands about the real world. The only problem is that this whole event is quickly lost within the Nero plot and, after the scene where Bones inoculates Kirk to smuggle him onto the ship, is never really addressed again. This makes that whole happening completely pointless to the overall story. It doesn’t advance the plot and it doesn’t even have much significance in character development, other than to show us that James Kirk is an immature jerk despite his three years of Starfleet training. What exactly was the purpose of this? Is it to show his naivety? That would be great if it actually followed up on the concept. Is it to show us his ingenuity and ability to think outside the box? Ha! Hardly. He may have beaten the test by cheating and installing a virus, but in a real world situation of that kind no amount of computer hacking would save his crew so all this scene does is prove to us just how unlikable and bratty our main hero is. 

- I was actually cheering Spock for calling him out on it…which is probably not the reaction Abrams was going for.

- The second thing that I don’t really feel worked in this film is the villain. Captain Nero completely under-whelmed me as the main antagonist. He was not menacing, he was not dangerous, heck – he didn’t even make me root for his demise! If anything I would describe him as forgettable. His first appearance at the very beginning of the movie was okay – mainly because he never said a line and merely brooded in the shadows before ruthlessly killing Captain Robau just off camera. At that point he was no where close to intimidating me, but I did think that he might turn out to be a decent enough antagonist for our heroes to face off with. Unfortunately all sense of evil dignity was ruined the moment he opened his mouth to speak.

- The only scene that had me even close to squirming with fear was the part where he tortures Pike through use of a beetle, but that had more to do with my dislike of creepy crawlies with huge pincers than anything projected by Nero. It was a bad thing all around. I couldn’t empathize with Nero, I didn’t fear Nero, and I didn’t want to see any more of Nero. 

- Now let me talk about the third main thing I don’t like about this film: the Spock/Uhura relationship. No, it’s not because I think that Spock shouldn’t be dating someone. If anything I think it would be interesting to explore just what it would be like for Spock to experience romance, just as it would be interesting for Uhura to deal with falling in love with a man who (as a rule) makes a point of suppressing his emotions. That would be cool to watch play out and would, I think, really give a new depth to both their characters. But is that what we got? No. Instead of a beautifully complicated relationship between two highly intelligent and all around decent people we have a clichéd and farcical excuse for a relationship that seems to only be here as an excuse for a bit of unwanted tension.

- Take the scene where the cadets are being assigned to the different ships as the officers prepare to go after the Narada, for example. Spock – knowing undoubtedly that a relationship between a junior officer and her superior might not be very well accepted – assigns his girlfriend to a totally different ship than the one he is first officer on. This is a very smart move as it both keeps their relationship away from scrutiny and makes it so that Spock won’t get in trouble for showing favoritism. But no sooner does Uhura find out about this then she is stalking over and telling her boyfriend (in no uncertain tones) that she will be assigned to the Enterprise with him and he caves to her. 

- I guess this scene was supposed to be cute or funny or relatable (to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure) but all it does is leave a bad taste in my mouth and put a strike against the two characters and their relationship. Right up until this point I liked Uhura (not in the least because she both is intelligent and rebuffs Kirk’s every advance) and I was shocked and a bit disgusted to see her pulling such a bratty move that was so uncharacteristic of her personality thus far. 

- As for Spock, well it doesn’t do much for his character either to make him into the henpecked boyfriend who caters to his girl’s every whim. I don’t mind them in a relationship; I just think that it is portrayed very poorly here.

This film was such a mixed bag. I wanted to love it, really I did, and for about the first half of the adventure I succeeded in that endeavor. Even after some of the more dodgy plot elements were introduced there were still little moments to enjoy (usually courtesy of Scotty) and the ending was at least satisfying. The entire cast did an amazing job and the look of the film was very crisp and futuristic – but it felt real too. I’m going to give Star Trek 2009 a 3/5 because, while undoubtedly flawed, it was still an enjoyable experience over all.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?