Star Trek - MSN Review

Seven years ago, Star Trek: Nemesis made it 10 big-screen missions for the Enterprise. It made fans wonder if the odd/even adage (odd number = bad film; even number = good film) still held true. Odd? Even? Whatever. Shaken up and styled up, Abrams’ origin story jettisons the franchise’s past baggage to warp Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi saga back to the future for a new generation.

 

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Bar-brawling, boozing and womanising, Chris Pine plays the young Kirk like a rebel without a cause, all rugged charisma and impulsive smarts. Was Shatner ever this cool? How his Starfleet rivalry with Spock forges a legendary friendship – the iceman versus hothead (or should that be maverick?) – is the real motor for Star Trek’s story. And perhaps even more than Pine’s Kirk, it’s Zachary Quinto’s Vulcan prodigy who wows with uncanny perfection, keeping Spock’s half-human heart beating fiercely under his frosted logic-face.

 

Speedily assembled by Abrams, the rest of the Enterprise crew all ace their iconic roles: Karl Urban is an enjoyably grumblesome ‘Bones’ McCoy, Anton Yelchin’s Chekov struggles amusingly to pronounce “Wulcan”, John Cho’s Sulu proves you can have swordfights in space, Zoe Saldana’s Uhuru is a straight-A smart-girl and Simon Pegg’s Scotty even gets to let rip with a classic “I’m giving it all she’s got, Captain!”

 

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Funny and fresh but never sliding into self-parody, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s script is spring-loaded with these witty nods and cheeky surprises. Spock is named Captain of the Enterprise (gasp!) and Kirk once again proves that, when it comes to a good woman, he’s happy to embrace all races. Even if she’s green.

 

True, you won’t find too much under Trek’s shiny surfaces. As pacy as it is, Kurtzman and Orci’s time-twisting story packs less narrative than a TV episode. Something to do with Eric Bana’s pantomime Romulan renegade out to destroy Spock’s home planet. Something to do with “red matter” and “black holes”.

 

But Trek’s vibrantly re-energised cast carry the movie past its leaky ideas. Opening a wormhole for many sequels to come, Leonard Nimoy gives Pine and Quinto the official handover in a lovely extended cameo. And this being Abrams – the man who pumped MI:II into one long action sequence – the thrills keep coming fast and fully charged. Beyond the phaser shoot-outs, Vulcan nerve grips and fist-fights, brace for Kirk and Sulu freefalling from outerspace like human bullets. Oh, and don’t get too attached to that crewmember in the red suit...

Fast, fun and fresh: JJ Abram's blockbusting space-adventure is a franchise reborn. Beam us up.

 

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Star Trek Video Special