Star Trek

There’s little doubt that Star Trek immediately establishes itself as a contemporary reboot done right, as the film – in sharp contrast to such disastrous re-imaginings as the James Bond and Halloween series – effectively retains the elements that originally endeared the property to fans while also opening the franchise up to an entirely new generation of viewers. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman ingeniously circumvent issues of canon by offering up a plot that ultimately unfolds inside an alternate timeline, with the storyline kicking into gear after a rogue Romulan (Eric Bana’s Nero) travels from the distant future (ie post Next Generation era) in an effort at essentially wiping out Starfleet in its early stages. The movie that subsequently ensues – which follows Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the rest of the Enterprise’s crew as they attempt to stop Nero – certainly feels more in line with Gene Roddenberry’s original vision than the disastrous 2002 TNG send-off Star Trek: Nemesis and the short-lived 2001 television program Enterprise, which is all-the-more impressive when one considers Orci and Kurtzman’s pronounced emphasis on expository elements that’ve clearly been designed to ease newcomers into the franchise’s futuristic landscape. Director J.J. Abrams effectively compensates for the introductory atmosphere by offering up a series of genuinely enthralling action sequences that are counterbalanced by several unexpectedly moving character-based moments, with the uniformly stellar performances proving instrumental in the various actors’ efforts at transforming their iconic characters into fully fleshed-out figures (something that’s particularly true of Pine’s ingratiating, thoroughly charismatic turn as Captain Kirk). The end result is a Trek adventure that easily ranks with the best the series has to offer – eg 1982’s Wrath of Khan and 1996’s First Contact – and one can’t hope that the film marks the beginning of a long-awaited rejuvenation of Roddenberry’s steadily decaying creation.

***1/2 out of ****