REVIEW: 'Trek' finds future in past

Too emotionally compromised to be effective.

It's an accusation tossed around on the Enterprise bridge, and it's an accusation that also landed squarely on my lap.

Yes, I am one of those "Star Trek" fans - I own all the series and movies, I have bookcases of Trek novels, boxes of toys and, I admit it, I even attend the conventions. So viewing a new "Star Trek" movie is hardly a passive experience for me.

Try as I might to keep my impartial critic hat in place, it is, to borrow a word, a futile gesture. I am perfectly willing to admit that most (but certainly not all) of my hang-ups with the film probably radiate from the fact that I am an unapologetic geek. Unless you live in the weeds like me, obsessing over minutia that others will never even see, "Star Trek" is going to be a jaw-dropping experience. The rest of us will just have to get over ourselves.

When an aged Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is unable to prevent a supernova from destroying the planet Romulus, he is held responsible by a Romulan miner named Nero (Eric Bana).

Nero enacts revenge by traveling back in time to destroy Spock's home planet of Vulcan and all other planets aligned with it, including Earth.

Only the USS Enterprise, captained by Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) and a crew of Starfleet Academy cadets, stand in Nero's way. When Pike is captured, the cadets, led by James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), have to survive and overcome a vastly superior foe.

Director J.J. Abrams has done something nobody thought possible. He has terraformed a franchise on which life-support systems had begun to fail. Abrams had his work cut out for him - rally longtime fans and simultaneously lure new blood - and he has succeeded in spectacular fashion.

Abrams' lack of religious reverence for the "Star Trek" canon is what has allowed him to take the risks necessary to succeed. Much has been made of this film's supposed thumbing of its nose at established "Trek" history, when, in fact, the screenwriters came up with an idea as simple as it is ingenious, to paint themselves out of a corner and into as many future episodes as they desire.

As a result, this epic and moving film radiates an energy and dynamism the franchise hasn't had since it first began. After years of stale storytelling, "Star Trek" is thrilling and sexy again.

Unfortunately, the plot is a disaster. The story moves at an unsafe warp speed. The script is far more comical than necessary. We are never given a suitable reason for the Romulan attack on the Federation, and we completely lack a tangible motivation behind Nero's quest for revenge.

Contrivances abound, from oh-so convenient encounters, to the proximity of various planets to each other, to the usual spiel about the Enterprise being the only ship in the quadrant, to the lack of senior officers, to preposterous battlefield promotions.

Abrams and team obviously wanted to make sure that the origins story was completely concluded with this initial outing, even if that meant straining credulity to the absolute breaking point and beyond.

The filmmakers get away with their preposterous gamble because they fall back on their characters each time. The energy of the film, lit by the genuine chemistry of the cast, keeps the film in motion in a way that will appease all but the most ardent fans.

These cannot have been easy shoes to fill. This cast is not simply taking over roles inhabited by the same actors for decades, they are characters playing characters; they are imitating cultural icons.

This new "Star Trek" looks like nothing you've ever seen before. The camera, deliberately plagued by frequent lens flares, moves at a frenetic pace, yet never so much that we're disoriented. Industrial Light & Magic's special effects are astonishingly good.

Scott Chambliss' production design is a mixed bag. Comparisons of the slick new bridge to a Mac store are completely reasonable, although the unrecognizable and cluttered lower decks resemble the engine room of the Titanic, with enormous gears and modern gasworks.

Like its youthful, energetic and sexy cast, this "Star Trek" is physical, not cerebral. If "Star Trek" does not reach for the philosophical stars as its cinematic brethren were wont to do, we can hope that that, too, will come in due course.

ONLINE > Trek World

Boldly go where many critics have gone before. Gazette film critic Brandon Fibbs, an avowed Trek geek, has more to say about "Star Trek" than can be contained here (or, really, in any newspaper in this part of the galaxy). See his extended review, and weigh in with your own reviews once you've seen the film, at The Gazette Film Blog: gazettefilmblog.freedomblogging.com.

STAR TREK

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Bruce Greenwood, Eric Bana
Director: J.J. Abrams
Theaters: Hollywood, Tinseltown, Carmike, Chapel Hills, Cinemark
Rating: PG-13 (for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content)
Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

GRADE: B+