Star Trek

4/5

Director: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Zoë Saldana and Simon Pegg

In a world where cynical audiences have criticised Hollywood for ‘milking’ its lucrative franchises with sequel after sequel after sequel, producers seem to have responded with a new tactic.  Following a slightly more destructive pattern, producers now seem to prefer to obliterate existing franchises and revamp them with fresher, edgier reincarnations.  Batman, James Bond, Indiana Jones and X-Men fans have all sat back and endured watching the creation of a new era which threatens to trample their fond memories, reducing them to forgotten reels in the Warner Bros. archive.  Fans of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek are the latest to suffer this traumatic experience.  

 

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is the eleventh film in the Star Trek franchise and it is undoubtedly a good one.  The film sees the same original characters facing a riskier situation as they are hurled into an alternate reality brought about by the new villain Nero.  Seeing the destruction of his home world Romulus, Nero travels back in time to exact revenge upon the federation, with the advantage of futuristic technology, as he sets about seeing planets Vulcan and Earth suffer the same fate.  Once again, James T Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise must master brain-frazzling scientific mysteries and brutal space-combat sequences to bring about a victory, all whilst learning the time-honoured American lesson that friendship is the only universal force worth respecting.  

 

Although the first forty-five minutes of the film feels a little like a classroom register, as each character is introduced one-by-one, the rest of the time is taken up by a thrilling mix of slick banter and gripping action sequences.  The cinematography has a raw, contemporary feel and the design elements build imaginatively on original concepts.  This is definitely more Deep Space Nine than it is Voyager.  In fact some of the design features, including the camera work, are reminiscent more of the rustic Star Wars than the reserved Star Trek.  The time play allows writers the freedom to create a new history with classic characters which is executed brilliantly on this project.  

 

However, as is always the case with an overhaul of this kind, with every new fan that you win over, you lose an old friend.  Enough of the ingredients are in place for this film to be labelled as part of the Star Trek franchise.  There is something uncomfortable, though, in sitting and watching all that you liked about Star Trek being wiped over and re-written.  Abrams risk taking strategy has certainly achieved fresh and edgy but whether or not it was clever has yet to be seen.