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Bookmark this pageStar Trek (2009)
Director: JJ Abrams
Synopsis
The original crew of the USS Enterprise battle Romulans from the future in the eleventh Star Trek film. J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield) directs and we follow James T. Kirk from his first day enrolling at the Starfleet Academy.
Movie review
From Time Out London
Cheerfully bucking the trend for dark, miserablist blockbusters, ‘Lost’ creator JJ Abrams has updated the ‘Star Trek’ franchise for the twenty-first century without resorting to political allegory, moral wrangling or the sadistic violence that characterised similar reinventions like ‘The Dark Knight’. It’s true that an entire planet gets blown up, but the characters swiftly recover on their way to another round of phaser-firing, evasive-manouevring, quip-trading action.The script details the early years of captain-to-be James T Kirk (Chris Pine) and his taciturn Vulcan sidekick Spock (Zachary Quinto) and is deceptively clever: it works both as affectionate fanboy nostalgia and as a neophyte’s introduction to the ‘Trek’-verse. By employing a time-distorting narrative, complete with mind-mangling multi-dimensional techspeak, Abrams and his writers allow themselves to refit this fictional future completely, keeping the good stuff (beaming up, warp drives, that inimitable ship design) while jettisoning most of the increasingly convoluted mythology.
It doesn’t all work: Eric Bana’s Romulan villain feels too familiar, just another plasticine-headed psychopath with a grudge against the universe. The climax, too, is undercooked: ten minutes of noisy ship-to-ship combat with very little emotional investment.
But these are minor complaints when stacked against Abrams’s many successes. The flawless design wittily updates the ’60s series’ sleek art deco interiors and throws in a few Lycra miniskirts for good measure. The cast are equally strong: Quinto brings wry charm to an otherwise calculating character, while Pine powers through his performance in bullish, if not quite Shatner-esque fashion. The only sore thumb is Karl Urban’s McCoy, whose ‘Damn it, Jim!’ impersonation feels a little too close to pastiche.
The overall impression is one of unbridled enthusiasm on the part of the film’s makers, both for its predecessors and for the brave new universe Abrams and his crew are exploring. Perhaps the best summary of the film comes from Captain Kirk himself, dying on the side of a distant interstellar rock many decades later: ‘It was… fun.’
Author: Tom Huddleston
Time Out London Issue 2020, May 7-13, 2009
User reviews of this film
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- Technoguy said...
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Posted on May 13 2009 00:11
I liked this attempt to reboot Star Trek to it's origins. I
was never a fan but casually watched some of the tv
series and one or two of the films. Yes,the juice had gone out of the series and film offshoots.This puts the
action back into the thing. There were two well known
actors,Eric Bana, like a version of the early Darth Vader
(pre-Iron Man) Romulan psychopath, and Bruce
Davidson as Captain Spike. I'm glad the other actors
were much lesser known faces. The 3 main characters
in the film are Kirk(Pine),Spock(Quinto) and Uhura
(Saldana) are excellently cast. Of the others, Sulu,
Chekov, Bones and Scotty I think Chekov has a great accent but he looks like a geeky schoolboy!The great
idea to have Spock and Kirk 'fighting in the Captain's
tower', giving the psychology of instinct vs reason
a fresh try out.I felt JJ Abrams had learnt from the film
version of the Firefly tv series to give the texture of the
planets and spacecraft a gunky feel,some of the action
scenes,fight-outs are rivetting,not to say the zappy
special effects.I really think the whole success of this
film lies in the actor who plays Spock who plays a scene
with the original(Nimo) returned from the future and the baton for the franchise is handed over.The romance
between Spock and Uhura does not slow down the zip-
warp factor.The best summer block buster by far. - Report as inappropriate
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- craig said...
- Posted on May 12 2009 23:22 it wos good
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- oldbrit said...
- Posted on May 11 2009 16:36 I'm nearly sixty, so I out-rank all of you in Trek fan years! It was visually stunning of course and the cast were well chosen, including Karl Urban. I didn't like the change of time-line idea and I'm sure that a decent script could have been contrived without this. Also, I have heard of field promotions, but cadet to captain? Come on - lazy writing! Even sci-fi has to have some parameters. Very good effort and worth seeing but it could have been so much better.
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- Space Monster said...
- Posted on May 11 2009 13:08 A stonking prequel that's sure to appeal to Trekkies AND people that have sex.
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- David said...
- Posted on May 11 2009 08:24 CHECK OUT THIS FILM! It's fun, exciting and has a good story that never gets boring. 'Star Trek' -Whoop! -Whoop!
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- Herm said...
- Posted on May 11 2009 07:09 This is exactly "a parallel universe story after all." Perhaps you missed that part...
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- Vague Boy said...
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Posted on May 10 2009 20:25
I'd take issue with the review's stance on Karl Urban. The people I saw the movie with (non-Trekies) thought his performance was one of the best, BECAUSE it was so much in the spirit of the original.
Also, "The new timeline means that nothing of the original is negated".
Surely changing history negates the original timeline. This is not a parallel universe story after all.
Which means that stories like "Amok Time", "Balance of Terror" and "Yesteryear" have now been completely negated. - Report as inappropriate
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- Bernie said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 19:16 Good movie. Best of the Star Trek movies since Wrath of Khan. I'm not sure I'm pleased with the easy out of an alternate time line, but, that is sometimes needed in the Star Trek series since the timeline is so complex a PHD in history would lose his mind trying to paste together all the movies and TV series and make sense of them I like the new, more vulnerable Spock, but I kept seeing Syler from Heroes (same actor) so that kind of took away from it. I'm sure the Spock character will grow on me with a couple more sequels....LOL. The O'Hura and Spock affair was a little strange, but OK...I can live with that too. The movie did explain how Kirk so quickly outranked his peers. Cadet to ship's captain in about three years...well...actually about two days. OK, what the heck.
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- Steve said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 16:39 "Great Movie", now with a different timeline,Hope to see another Star Trek movie in the works.
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- DavidR said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 16:25 Forgot to mention: Young Spock rocks! \o/
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- DavidR said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 16:23 Just saw it today and must say that it was a well-made, highly entertaining film. The visual effects were impeccable. The acting, though far from award-winning, was fast paced and always injected with humor. Hardcore Trekkies might cringe, but a host of new generation fans will be delighted... as was I! Here's hoping there will be more like this to follow.
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- Jonnieboy said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 10:57 Lifelong fan here, I'm forty-three years old, the same age as Star Trek and this is a pretty terrific movie. No quibbles - funny, good action, and it's Star Trek for real. There's a romantic coupling that's the stuff of fan fiction LOL
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- joe rook said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 09:32 i havent even seen the film and it already looks to be the best film ever :)
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- Gavin said...
- Posted on May 10 2009 00:05 I grew up watching the original Star Trek series and loved the subsequent Next Generation series. Star Trek will always have a special place in my heart. This film was simply brilliant. It felt like a tribute from a younger generation to an older one. Chris Pine was great as Kirk. Creating an alternative timeline was very very clever and true to the spirit of Star Trek which has always used multiple timelines, mirror universes etc. The new timeline means that nothing of the original is negated while the decks are clear new directions. This is quality work people.
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- Wraight said...
- Posted on May 09 2009 23:57 Star Trek the film was preety damn good. The seasoned Trekkies in the audience all applauded at the end. Live long and boldly go!
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: JJ Abrams
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Winona Ryder, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Bruce Greenwood, John Cho, Leonard Nimoy, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Rated: 12A
Duration: 127 mins
UK Release: May 8 2009
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