Star Trekkin'
So the new Star Trek movie came out Friday -- it's getting praised pretty highly almost everywhere I've seen, from regular critics to RPGnet and various other geek circles. I saw it Friday, and after taking the weekend to digest the movie, I'm going to have to go ever so slightly against the grain.
First off, let me start by saying that this is a good movie, well worth seeing, and even if you're not a Star Trek fan, you'll like it as a straight up action movie. The acting is really good (more about this later), the dialogue is well-written, and the special effects are also excellent. The problem, for me, is that while the movie works as an action movie, it just doesn't seem very "Star Trekky" to me.
The problem comes in when I look at the other Trek movies I really like -- Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. They aren't action movies. There's some exciting action sequences, but the best parts of the movie don't really have much to do with that. Most of the movie is quieter and more contemplative; the action is used to punctuate the movie's acts, but the whole movie is not just one action sequence after another.
In contrast, the new movie gives you almost no time to breathe between action sequences, starting right out of the gate. Even events of literally earthshattering importance don't seem to get more than 2-3 minutes thought before plunging into yet another effects-driven spectacular. That's not inherently bad in a movie, but it left me feeling a little empty, and wanting a movie that was a little more substantial at heart like the above two. On the other hand, I think this was probably a better choice than the one made when they filmed Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was a movie with pretty much no action sequences what so ever.
But enough about my caveats; this is a good movie, and there's little doubt about that, it seems. The actors in this movie have probably the toughest job in Hollywood here; nearly every single one of the principal cast is playing an iconic role made famous by another actor who is largely famous for that exact role. And yet, they manage, by and large, to pull it off and do it well, while giving their own spin on things and not simply being a retread of the previous actor.
Chris Pine, as Kirk, has probably the toughest job, and wisely seems to have decided he cannot be William Shatner and doesn't even try. His Kirk is still brash, still sleeps with green chicks, and punches aliens in the face, but there's none of the trademark Shatner delivery, which is probably for the best -- as I heard somewhere before, "everyone who does a William Shatner impression is really just doing an impression of Kevin Pollak doing a William Shatner impression." His relationship with Spock develops well over the course of the movie, though as I said above, there's not a lot of overt character development put in there.
Zachary Quinto, as Spock, does a good job, made even more difficult by the fact that Leonard Nimoy is also in the movie, playing an older version of the character. He shows the clash of cultures in his character, and did a good job of emulating the heart of Nimoy's Spock without just mimicing him. This version of Spock seems a little more human and runs with his suppressed emotions a little closer to the surface, possibly a reflection of the fact that he's supposed to be younger in this movie. The biggest problem with Spock is that he just doesn't have time to react to the momentous events in the film for the most part.
The third part of the original series' triumvirate, McCoy, is portrayed by Karl Urban, and of the new actors, Urban is the one who tries the hardest to emulate the previous actor, DeForest Kelley. To his credit, he does it excellently and as Squaremans says, he steals every scene he's in. It's surprising to see someone who I know mostly from his roles in Lord of the Rings in a role which is largely comedic, but he is really good and I think if Kelley was alive he would be happy to see him reprising the role.
Eric Bana, as the movie's villian, doesn't really get a lot of development; he does a good job with what he has, but his character, Nero, doesn't really compare to Montalban's Khan or Plummer's General Chang because you don't really get to know him. He and his ship seem more like a force of nature than an antagonist, which I think also hurts the movie. He gets a tiny bit of development in an explosive bit of exposition, but if you blink you'll miss it, and there's no real interaction where he's not simply being the villian. It's too bad; Bana is a good actor (you only need to see him in Black Hawk Down or Munich to see that), but the script doesn't give him much to do other than sit in his throne and look menacing.
The rest of the cast is also well-assembled -- Simon Pegg, as Scotty, is probably the big standout, who plays the ship's engineer as much more frenetic than James Doohan, but I think that shortchanges John Cho and Anton Yelchin, who do good jobs as Sulu and Chekov respectively. Cho does a good job carrying through the character's athleticism and the few wry bits of humor he gets to throw out, and Yelchin does a good job as a young wunderkind who seems excited just to be on a starship. The only one that sort of came off bland to me was Zoe Saldana as Uhura; despite the fact that I think she gets the most screen time after the top three crewmembers, I just didn't feel like she got the chance to make the character her own. Whether this was a problem with her acting, or the writing, I just can't tell.
Usually, I have a much longer, spoilerific review beyond the cut, and I'll have that here, but honestly, the story here is not the big draw of this Star Trek movie. If you want to see what I think of the story though, feel free to peek behind the cut.
First off, let me start by saying that this is a good movie, well worth seeing, and even if you're not a Star Trek fan, you'll like it as a straight up action movie. The acting is really good (more about this later), the dialogue is well-written, and the special effects are also excellent. The problem, for me, is that while the movie works as an action movie, it just doesn't seem very "Star Trekky" to me.
The problem comes in when I look at the other Trek movies I really like -- Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. They aren't action movies. There's some exciting action sequences, but the best parts of the movie don't really have much to do with that. Most of the movie is quieter and more contemplative; the action is used to punctuate the movie's acts, but the whole movie is not just one action sequence after another.
In contrast, the new movie gives you almost no time to breathe between action sequences, starting right out of the gate. Even events of literally earthshattering importance don't seem to get more than 2-3 minutes thought before plunging into yet another effects-driven spectacular. That's not inherently bad in a movie, but it left me feeling a little empty, and wanting a movie that was a little more substantial at heart like the above two. On the other hand, I think this was probably a better choice than the one made when they filmed Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was a movie with pretty much no action sequences what so ever.
But enough about my caveats; this is a good movie, and there's little doubt about that, it seems. The actors in this movie have probably the toughest job in Hollywood here; nearly every single one of the principal cast is playing an iconic role made famous by another actor who is largely famous for that exact role. And yet, they manage, by and large, to pull it off and do it well, while giving their own spin on things and not simply being a retread of the previous actor.
Chris Pine, as Kirk, has probably the toughest job, and wisely seems to have decided he cannot be William Shatner and doesn't even try. His Kirk is still brash, still sleeps with green chicks, and punches aliens in the face, but there's none of the trademark Shatner delivery, which is probably for the best -- as I heard somewhere before, "everyone who does a William Shatner impression is really just doing an impression of Kevin Pollak doing a William Shatner impression." His relationship with Spock develops well over the course of the movie, though as I said above, there's not a lot of overt character development put in there.
Zachary Quinto, as Spock, does a good job, made even more difficult by the fact that Leonard Nimoy is also in the movie, playing an older version of the character. He shows the clash of cultures in his character, and did a good job of emulating the heart of Nimoy's Spock without just mimicing him. This version of Spock seems a little more human and runs with his suppressed emotions a little closer to the surface, possibly a reflection of the fact that he's supposed to be younger in this movie. The biggest problem with Spock is that he just doesn't have time to react to the momentous events in the film for the most part.
The third part of the original series' triumvirate, McCoy, is portrayed by Karl Urban, and of the new actors, Urban is the one who tries the hardest to emulate the previous actor, DeForest Kelley. To his credit, he does it excellently and as Squaremans says, he steals every scene he's in. It's surprising to see someone who I know mostly from his roles in Lord of the Rings in a role which is largely comedic, but he is really good and I think if Kelley was alive he would be happy to see him reprising the role.
Eric Bana, as the movie's villian, doesn't really get a lot of development; he does a good job with what he has, but his character, Nero, doesn't really compare to Montalban's Khan or Plummer's General Chang because you don't really get to know him. He and his ship seem more like a force of nature than an antagonist, which I think also hurts the movie. He gets a tiny bit of development in an explosive bit of exposition, but if you blink you'll miss it, and there's no real interaction where he's not simply being the villian. It's too bad; Bana is a good actor (you only need to see him in Black Hawk Down or Munich to see that), but the script doesn't give him much to do other than sit in his throne and look menacing.
The rest of the cast is also well-assembled -- Simon Pegg, as Scotty, is probably the big standout, who plays the ship's engineer as much more frenetic than James Doohan, but I think that shortchanges John Cho and Anton Yelchin, who do good jobs as Sulu and Chekov respectively. Cho does a good job carrying through the character's athleticism and the few wry bits of humor he gets to throw out, and Yelchin does a good job as a young wunderkind who seems excited just to be on a starship. The only one that sort of came off bland to me was Zoe Saldana as Uhura; despite the fact that I think she gets the most screen time after the top three crewmembers, I just didn't feel like she got the chance to make the character her own. Whether this was a problem with her acting, or the writing, I just can't tell.
Usually, I have a much longer, spoilerific review beyond the cut, and I'll have that here, but honestly, the story here is not the big draw of this Star Trek movie. If you want to see what I think of the story though, feel free to peek behind the cut.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE -- LOOK NO FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED
The movie centers around time travel, which is pretty dangerous territory for Star Trek. It can be done well -- as in "The City on the Edge of Forever" or The Voyage Home, but it can also be really crappy, as in....well, most of the episodes from the later series that used it as a plot point. Here it is not just the center of the plot, but also a very meta-element of the movie, as it's basically the screenwriters/studio's justification for the "reboot" of Star Trek -- this is an alternate timeline, and so it's an attempt to sidestep the continuity issue. It gives the writers more flexibility to do some really shocking things -- but they also miss the opportunity to capitalize on those (more on this later).
We open with a spectacular opening sequence where Kirk's father sacrifices himself to save the crew of his ship, the Kelvin, from the Romulans under Bana's Nero, setting up the great trailer line by Captain Pike about his father being captain for 15 minutes and saving 800 lives, and challenging Kirk to do better. This sets Kirk on his course for the Academy; along the way we meet most of the other bridge crew. We also get to see Kirk cheat at the Kobayashi Maru test, which was fun, though I much prefer the version of that we see in the novel of the same name.
Meanwhile, Nero captures "future Spock" (played, of course, by Nimoy), who is arriving from the future through a singularity created during a supernova in the future. Spock had been trying to collapse the supernova (by creating the singularity with the "red matter" MacGuffin) and save Romulus, but failed, and the planet was destroyed -- for some reason Nero blames him. Nero maroons him on an arctic world and then goes to blow up Vulcan with the MacGuffin to punish Spock.
Vulcan comes under attack and the Academy soon-to-be-grads are rushed aboard newly-finished starships to rescue it (Kirk, suspended due to his Kobayashi Maru hijinks, is dragged along thanks to the hilarious machinations of McCoy). Unfortunately, most of these ships meet a horrible end at Vulcan, but the Enterprise is delayed by Kirk realizing that this is the same ship that killed his father. The Enterprise arrives and Nero threatens to blow it up if Pike doesn't come aboard his ship, so he does, putting Spock in charge and making Kirk the first officer (are there REALLY no actual line officers on this ship to put as first officer -- at least Spock is a Commander!).
Of course, it's a double cross, and Kirk, Sulu, and a too-stupid-to-live redshirt go to try and stop the big boring machine Nero is using to tunnel through to the planet's core. The redshirt thinks pulling his ripcord 2 second before touchdown is a good plan (it's not), so then Sulu gets to show off some swordfighting skills and he and Kirk disable the boring machine.
Unfortunately, it's too late. Spock manages to save his father and a number of the Vulcan high council members, but his mother dies and Vulcan is destroyed. Now, I have to give the writers credit for being willing to do something big here that irrevocably changes the Star Trek universe. On the other hand, there's enormous wasted potential here; young Spock broods about it for a few minutes, and then we're on to another action sequence with Kirk on the arctic planet, not even really giving us time to catch our breaths. Contrast this to what happens after the Enterprise is crippled in the early part of Wrath of Khan, and it feels a little hollow.
Anyway, Kirk and old Spock, with the help of Scotty (who had been exiled to a Federation outpost on the arctic planet after a transporter experiment went awry) get back aboard the Enterprise and convince Spock he's too emotionally messed up to command the ship, getting Kirk put in charge. The Enterprise then goes after Nero, who is targetting Earth next. Kirk and Spock beam aboard Nero's ship to rescue Pike and get the MacGuffin back, leading to a running battle where they win, blah blah. Nothing in the finale really stands out to me, honestly, but it's well-executed, if not particularly innovative.
The movie ends with Kirk getting put in charge of the Enterprise, and here I have to wonder -- are there no senior officers who are kind of pissed a cadet leapfrogged all of them with years of experience to take command of a ship of the line, regardless of what he's done. It's a bit silly, honestly. This, however, is kind of a bind for the people behind this reboot, as they want the characters to be young, and while Kirk was supposedly the youngest captain ever, he was still supposed to be in his early 30s when it happened. They want to show the Academy bits though, and I think that trapped them.
Anyway, overall, the movie isn't bad, but it's not a particularly deep movie or an especially well-representative one of the Star Trek franchise. I still put most of the original series movies ahead of it, with the exception of maybe the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture and definitely the Movie That Shall Remain Unnamed.
If you want a more vituperative review, might I suggest that of the Escapist:
The movie centers around time travel, which is pretty dangerous territory for Star Trek. It can be done well -- as in "The City on the Edge of Forever" or The Voyage Home, but it can also be really crappy, as in....well, most of the episodes from the later series that used it as a plot point. Here it is not just the center of the plot, but also a very meta-element of the movie, as it's basically the screenwriters/studio's justification for the "reboot" of Star Trek -- this is an alternate timeline, and so it's an attempt to sidestep the continuity issue. It gives the writers more flexibility to do some really shocking things -- but they also miss the opportunity to capitalize on those (more on this later).
We open with a spectacular opening sequence where Kirk's father sacrifices himself to save the crew of his ship, the Kelvin, from the Romulans under Bana's Nero, setting up the great trailer line by Captain Pike about his father being captain for 15 minutes and saving 800 lives, and challenging Kirk to do better. This sets Kirk on his course for the Academy; along the way we meet most of the other bridge crew. We also get to see Kirk cheat at the Kobayashi Maru test, which was fun, though I much prefer the version of that we see in the novel of the same name.
Meanwhile, Nero captures "future Spock" (played, of course, by Nimoy), who is arriving from the future through a singularity created during a supernova in the future. Spock had been trying to collapse the supernova (by creating the singularity with the "red matter" MacGuffin) and save Romulus, but failed, and the planet was destroyed -- for some reason Nero blames him. Nero maroons him on an arctic world and then goes to blow up Vulcan with the MacGuffin to punish Spock.
Vulcan comes under attack and the Academy soon-to-be-grads are rushed aboard newly-finished starships to rescue it (Kirk, suspended due to his Kobayashi Maru hijinks, is dragged along thanks to the hilarious machinations of McCoy). Unfortunately, most of these ships meet a horrible end at Vulcan, but the Enterprise is delayed by Kirk realizing that this is the same ship that killed his father. The Enterprise arrives and Nero threatens to blow it up if Pike doesn't come aboard his ship, so he does, putting Spock in charge and making Kirk the first officer (are there REALLY no actual line officers on this ship to put as first officer -- at least Spock is a Commander!).
Of course, it's a double cross, and Kirk, Sulu, and a too-stupid-to-live redshirt go to try and stop the big boring machine Nero is using to tunnel through to the planet's core. The redshirt thinks pulling his ripcord 2 second before touchdown is a good plan (it's not), so then Sulu gets to show off some swordfighting skills and he and Kirk disable the boring machine.
Unfortunately, it's too late. Spock manages to save his father and a number of the Vulcan high council members, but his mother dies and Vulcan is destroyed. Now, I have to give the writers credit for being willing to do something big here that irrevocably changes the Star Trek universe. On the other hand, there's enormous wasted potential here; young Spock broods about it for a few minutes, and then we're on to another action sequence with Kirk on the arctic planet, not even really giving us time to catch our breaths. Contrast this to what happens after the Enterprise is crippled in the early part of Wrath of Khan, and it feels a little hollow.
Anyway, Kirk and old Spock, with the help of Scotty (who had been exiled to a Federation outpost on the arctic planet after a transporter experiment went awry) get back aboard the Enterprise and convince Spock he's too emotionally messed up to command the ship, getting Kirk put in charge. The Enterprise then goes after Nero, who is targetting Earth next. Kirk and Spock beam aboard Nero's ship to rescue Pike and get the MacGuffin back, leading to a running battle where they win, blah blah. Nothing in the finale really stands out to me, honestly, but it's well-executed, if not particularly innovative.
The movie ends with Kirk getting put in charge of the Enterprise, and here I have to wonder -- are there no senior officers who are kind of pissed a cadet leapfrogged all of them with years of experience to take command of a ship of the line, regardless of what he's done. It's a bit silly, honestly. This, however, is kind of a bind for the people behind this reboot, as they want the characters to be young, and while Kirk was supposedly the youngest captain ever, he was still supposed to be in his early 30s when it happened. They want to show the Academy bits though, and I think that trapped them.
Anyway, overall, the movie isn't bad, but it's not a particularly deep movie or an especially well-representative one of the Star Trek franchise. I still put most of the original series movies ahead of it, with the exception of maybe the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture and definitely the Movie That Shall Remain Unnamed.
If you want a more vituperative review, might I suggest that of the Escapist:
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