The new Star Trek movie opened a couple of weeks ago in theaters, hanging on to the number one spot until Angels and Demons premiered. Having already recouped it's budget in two weeks, the movie is still going strong, owing its success to an appeal that reaches traditional Trekkie's like myself as well as the average movie-goer.
I thought it might be fun to try to conjure up 10 reasons this new Trek is worth the $742 it costs to go to the movies these days. I'll try to keep it spoiler-free for those that want to see it, but then again, nobody really reads this blog anyway, so here goes:
10: The inclusion of Leonard Nimoy. Sure William Shatner was denied, but the original Spock's presence makes this movie "official" for a lot of people, and upped the ante on the cast and crew to honor the original series, known affectionately as 'TOS'.
9: Nobody really tried to imitate the original actors. Mostly, the new cast gave us a new, fresh interpretation. The only real exception is Karl Urban, who seems to really be trying to channel Dr. McCoy.
8: Aliens that really look like aliens. The original show had some cool alien characters. Anyone remember the Thalosians? Freaky. Also, the Andorians, the Mugatu, and many more. The 60's show seemed to really stretch the imaginations of the creators by bringing us otherworldly characters. Then came Star Trek: The Next Generation. Suddenly, aliens were unanimously created by simply having a 'bumpy-headed' human. Seriously? Is that the best they could do with their expanded budget and technology? Rubber foreheads?
Well, this newest release has real-looking aliens populating Federation space once again. Yaay!
7: Enterprise isn't too updated. Sure, they don't have the red banister, the anonymous blinking Christmas lights and such. But the sets and exteriors are similar enough that you feel like you're back watching the original. Granted, the background isn't painted with the groovy bright 60's color scheme, but some liberation had to be made. I always hated Enterprise-D from Next Generation with its muted, beige colors, ergonomic design, and touchscreen displays. It reminds me of a Galactic Holiday Inn.
6: Speaking of Enterprise, going to 'warp' actually looks like a ship is jumping to light-speed. In recent iterations of Trek, when a ship went to warp, you had the bizarre squash-and-stretch that warping ships went into. That never made sense to me. I always thought, what is this, a cartoon? Ships don't stretch out when they suddenly move fast. In Star Trek '09, when a ship jumps to warp, it really jumps to warp, in other words it almost just disappears. It seems more realistic.
5: In space, nobody hears you scream. There are a couple of moments when the action takes you outside the ship, and the sound goes quiet. This allows for the score to do its wonderful work, while honoring the scientific fact that sound doesn't actually work in space. I haven't seen that since 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it is used to great effect here. I can't remember if this rule applied through the whole movie or not, but it seems that at least a couple of times it worked well.
4: Wrath of Continuity. It seemed that with the time travel storyline, die hard fans have boo-hoo'd for months now about the disruption in continuity. Without giving too much away, there is a plot device that both honors continuity from previous shows, while allowing for some new possibilities.
3: Goodbye, political correctness. In recent years, Star Trek has evolved into a pseudo-intellectual, politically correct, sometimes boring affair. Nothing against Captain Picard, but he's just too dog-gone perfect. He never made judgement errors, never was out of line, never broke prime directive, blah blah blah. Now, we're back to a captain we believe can make tough calls, make mistakes, and perform with the kind of bravado that made Captain Kirk legendary. Additionally, you have to remember that we're going back to the early careers of the crew, meaning the captain is even younger and more brash than he was during the television show that ran from '66 to '69.
2: Action and peril. Nobody is safe in the new timeline, so it's possible to sit on the edge of your seat and wonder what's going to happen next. The new version has plenty of action, hearkening back to when the show was essentially a western in space. Naysayers whine about how Roddenberry's vision was a civilized, peaceful future, yada yada but I say WRONG. Even Gene Roddenberry knew that there had to be at least some excitement. Sure the shows were thought-provoking, but then you had Kirk doing awesome Kirky things like building a rifle from scratch to fight the Gorn.
1: Character development. It is possible to take beloved characters, acknowledge their previous traits, and develop interesting story arcs without violating what we know. Additionally, some characters were expanded on significantly, and given more to do than sit at the console and say "Aye, sir". Action and big explosions are certainly nice, but the story at its core really is about the interesting people, and their interactions. Nearly everyone gets plenty of face-time, with the possible exception of Chekhov, who is little more than comic relief with his accent. That's only a minor complaint though, especially when he was not even on the show during the initial run of their 5-year mission.
If you are capable of overlooking a few minor quibbles, such as details like Captain Pike now being an older mentor instead of Kirk's contemporary, Enterprise being built on the ground instead of in space, and characters that originally didn't appear until later, you'll have a good time.
Highly recommended, four stars.
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