Uh... Sulu can you move your hand please?

Uh... Sulu can you move your hand please?

I would consider myself to be a Trekkie, though not a fanboy.  I have always been a fan of the show and hold it even above Star Wars in its epic greatness, but I also recognize that it has never been perfect.  I had heard of vaguely un-Trekworthy storylines and pissed off fanboys, but I intentionally avoided spoilers like the plague on this one, so I knew nothing of the sheer scale of this “reboot” of the franchise.  Therefore, when I got in line to go in and see the movie, I fully expected it to suck and to be righteously pissed off in a couple of hours.  I must say, though, that I was pleasantly surprised and only a little pissed off.  But I’m getting ahead of myself, first the movie.

Minor spoilers after the jump…I can’t remember a recent movie that I enjoyed more than Star Trek.  Maybe Iron Man…  I think I enjoyed Iron Man as much as Star Trek.  It’s the same brand of non-stop action coupled with familiar figures shown in a new light and with new special effects that attempt to blow your mind.  OK, so maybe maybe it’s a formulaic grab-bag of explosions and fight scenes with little exposition, but I was on the edge of my seat anyway and the grin on my face was proof positive that the formula works.  When space-shrapnel is whizzing by your ears at warp speed, it’s easy to overlook all the huge, gaping plot holes.

I think the cast selections were for the most part pretty good, although I wouldn’t call any of them perfect.  I will admit that it took me a few minutes of watching Sylar/Spock before I stopped expecting to see him dismember everyone in the room.  I will also admit that Zachary Quinto is a dead ringer for a young Spock.  Chris Pine is a bit forgettable as James Tiberius Kirk, and that’s unfortunate because Shatner was so unforgettable in the role.  As for rest of the cast, I thought Karl Urban as Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy was pretty spot on and Simon Pegg was hilarious as Scotty, who was always a bit comical.

But the story… ah, there’s the rub.  JJ Abrams could have gone with what everyone expected.  There was an expectation that this was to be a movie about Kirk and the gang in Star Fleet Academy together, sort of a Hogwarts in space.  Abrams chose not to stick to that expectation.  Doing a prequel has certain limitations (especially when the fans are as rabid as these), in that you have to stick to the established time line and certain things are preordained.  This movie makes it seem like JJ Abrams just said “screw that, I’m doing what I want with it” and someone had the balls to let him do it, with fantastic results.

If you want to remain spoiler free, you should stop here and just know that the story he chose takes the “franchise reboot” scenario to the extreme, but it does it in a way that has me anticipating what’s next.  I think it’s the fact that it’s so ballsy that makes me a little giddy.

—SPOILERS BELOW—

The problem essentially boils down to mucking with the time line.  Yes, boys and girls, this flick includes a bit of the ol’ time travel, and this script completely ignores such pesky things as paradox (e.g. traveling back in time to see the guy who figured out the game-changing formula and then giving him the formula?!).  Luckily our heroes never have to go tripping through space time, it’s the enemy that is flipping around in time, and we, the tender audience, don’t have to endure watching it happen.  Much.  An unfortunate consequence of the bad boys back in time blowing stuff up scenario is that EVERYTHING CHANGES!  In the course of the movie, an entire well-known and highly populated planet is completely destroyed.  There’s no coming back from that.  There’s nothing our heroes can do about it but accept that it has happened.  There is some attempt to relate this to the alternate universe story lines that were popular in all the Star Trek shows, but it basically boils down to this:

Because of the events of this single movie, none of the other Star Treks will ever happen, or at least not EXACTLY as we’ve already seen them.  Sure, Kirk and the crew still end up on the Enterprise, but the story of how they got there is different now.  This movie not only changes the time line, it completely wipes it out.  And you know what?  I’m OK with that.  I’m OK with believing that all this NEW stuff is just an alternate universe.  Star Trek, Enterprise, The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, gobs of movies and books, they all happened, but they’re history now.  They’re done, they’re in another universe.   James T. Kirk has a new history to make now, free from the chains that bound him to a future that was already written (as cool as that future was).

—END SPOILERS—

Let me know what you thought about it in the comments.  Catch up on all that history with some of this swag:

Star Trek: The Original Series (Remastered) – Three Season Pack

Star Trek The Animated Series – The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Complete Series

Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection (The Motion Picture / The Wrath of Kahn / The Search for Spock / The Voyage Home / The Final Frontier / The … Captains Summit Bonus Disc) [Blu-ray]