"Star Trek" (2009) - Movie Review

The memories of the Spock’s sharp grips are still there reminding the TV Series we watched in India without a clue of the story. It was about the graphical galaxies and the actions. Yet Captain Kirk played by William Shatner brought the hot seat of being the Captain as something of high on toes and seeing the safe existence of the USS Enterprise (I never remembered the name of the space ship before seeing this film though) cool. J.J. Abrams bottles those tension in the main cockpit of the ship intact along with a rejuvenation of the middle aged actors breathing refreshing youth to it. Result is astonishingly terrific chemistry and fun with a plot disturbing the debatable space-time continuum. This is “Star Trek” and it accomplishes its tasks considerably.

Abrams did something of a similar feat in “Mission Impossible: III”, a franchise declining after John Woo’s second of the franchise force feeding preposterous in sumptuous amounts. That film carried a strange sense of seriousness and paralleling the action part of it with not alone entertainment but with lot of sense and admiring cleverness. “Star Trek” follows that trend with actors believing in their roles as they believed watching the TV series growing up. In this film we see baby James Tiberius Kirk born as his father George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) a young acting Captain as his predecessor assigned him before entering the suicidal caves of a giant highly technical space ship of one Captain Nero (Eric Bana in an unrecognizable face lift). As the attack is imminent and the auto pilot failing, George destined to die saves 800 lives and manages to do some damage to the gargantuan enemy ship.

Years multiply and as we see young Spock struggling to cope with his half Vulcan half human troubles, James Kirk grows to be stunningly handsome and cheeky spoken Chris Spine. As Kirk gets himself beaten to death in a bar fight with “Star Fleet” grads, the wise aged Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) talks some sense into altering his future of prosperous space adventures. Along with Kirk we meet the crew that begins in the earlier phase with physician McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and later part of the film Scotty (Simon Pegg). What comes to the table of discussion in terms of characters and smart comments is between Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Kirk.

Where there have come a series of monotonous approach of several directors in bringing a block buster is by getting into a predetermined route, Abams lets his execution by balancing the factor of entertainment and the limitations of such in characters with a great skill. While we are constantly amazed by the witty conversations between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, the graphical choreography in giving the outer space experience is clear and comfortably shaky. Thus adding the much needed shudder of being in that situation without much annoyance.

The story also really involves on the capability of the each personnel on the ship. Not merely demonstrating a magical line but delivering those lines with a tone of experience and a hope of genuinely getting an appreciation from the superiors. When the space ships leave from earth to respond for a call from the Vulcan planet and one by one the ships go into light speed, the USS Enterprise stops. Sulu is the new pilot and how wisely and with cracking air of sarcasm does Spock asks whether the Park Brake is still on. It is in these few details we see that the characters have a reason to be who they are with not a script turned expertise in their skills but the dialogues and the actors saying it with a confidence to believe them of those capabilities.

But when the film gets into the future and alternate reality, there are flurries of questions with of course no answers. Leonard Nimoy as the Spock Prime coming from future reprises his TV Series role. And Chris Spine and Zachary Quinto working very well together to amazing surprise of mine. The film always rides on the edge without letting a time to get ourselves warped in the questions. It thus covers up the great blatant holes with considerable ease and also maintaining to admire the characters it creates.

“Star Trek” is no venture into seriously involving in the character study and the grey area of good and bad as the trend of cheesy old flicks and comics take in to screen. It is definitely a film very well aimed at the sector of entertainment than material. But it respects its general audience and adds the element of sense and plausibilities, again not in the physics but in the presentation. It does not bury itself into the grandeur nature of its material and begins to see these firmly placed TV characters into something more jolly real and fun. “Star Trek” is as entertaining it could get and is as mature it can get too.