Star Trek, you know, the new one (2009)

Yes, a bit early for a Star Trek review, but we saw a preview last night. Going in I did not realize that this was going to be a reboot of The Original Series, and right up till the end, I thought that they were going to clear up the discrepancies with the original series with some time traveling sleight of hand. I suppose they managed to explain the reboot in a fairly creative way; it's pretty "meta" for a film to actually address the fact that it's rewriting the story of its source material. I won't say any more for the risk of excessive spoilage.

One early highlight was the inclusion of an Indian guy in Starfleet. Have you ever noticed that there are no South Asians or Chinese people in Starfleet, despite those groups making up a large portion of the world's population? Beyond that, the beginning of the film is dominated by action sequences, and after a brief lull, the action takes hold again right up until the end. This was the biggest disappointment of the film for me, the oddness of watching a Star Trek film that had way more action than many Star Wars movies. There was nothing wrong with the action in itself, it's well directed and the special effects are good. Yes there are tons of holes in the physics the screen writers deployed, read Ebert's review for a lot more on that. But the real problem is that all the action doesn't leave a lot of room for the moral dilemmas and clash of ideologies that always animated the best conflicts in Star Trek. Sometimes this more cerebral content ends up as admittedly little more than window dressing, but it still contributes to the unique flavor of the Star Trek universe, just like mystic mumbo-jumbo is essential to Star Wars.

You'd be right to point out I shouldn't be surprised that this repackaging of Star Trek aims in a more marketable direction that's amenable to an action filled, high gloss finish. The good news is that it does a pretty good job of transporting familiar characters into a different kind of setting. For me, the performance that was key in evoking that classic TOS feel was Karl Urban as Bones. Part of the fun is seeing the characters as they were as younger people, and hilariously young Bones is just as crabby and crotchety as is his older self. Most other performances are adequate to good. Spock is probably the most important role, and he's quite a bit different than in TOS, but that tension is definitely part of what's driving the story. Ultimately Zachary Quinto gives an interesting performance in a movie that doesn't permit too much subtlety. On the other hand, Simon Pegg is overly jokey as Scotty, a character whose comic appeal was based more on a mild stuffiness than buffoonery. And his accent here is entirely too authentic; that's what you get for hiring a British guy.

The treatment of Uhura's character shows both how far our culture has come in adopting the ideals of feminism since the time of TOS in that she is a much more three dimensional, assertive character here, as opposed to being little more than an extra for most of the series; and how incomplete the realization of feminist ideals has been, because in many ways Uhura remains a sex object, though certainly a less passive one.

So, a good Summer movie. Terminator still bears my hopes for a totally awesome action blockbuster, but this could be the beginning of an interesting series.