Film Review: J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness

"Space: the final frontier."  It has been nearly 47 years since those words were first uttered on prime time television.  Now being a spry youth of just 45, I was not yet around to hear these iconic words when they were first spoken, but I can sure as hell call myself a trekker from way back, as I grew up on reruns of the show in the 1970's, and am thrilled by the new places and old glories J.J. Abrams has taken good ole NCC 1701.

Only running a mere three seasons, or just 79 episodes, before being canceled by NBC for lack of ratings (a move that looks quite silly in retrospect), the iconic Star Trek spawned an animated series, four spin-offs, several web series, including a new one making its debut later this month, twelve movies (six original series, four Next Generation, and now two in J.J. Abrams' reboot run) and a veritable slew of toys, games and other sundry items.  When Abrams came out with his aforementioned reboot in 2009, many die-hard fans were skeptical (downright vicious even), but once seeing the film, at least this die-hard fan was amazed.  Somehow Abrams, a guy who has admitted to having never been much of a fan of the original series (blasphemy, I know), managed to put together a film that could satisfy both the fanboys and those without much Trek knowledge.  I believe I myself may have even called it the best of the, then eleven, Trek films (I know, blasphemy again), and even had the audacity to include it in my top ten for the year.  Now cut to four years later, and Abrams has managed to pull it off again.  Granted, perhaps not to the extent he did it in 2009, but the director has indeed made a most enjoyable film - even with what some might call (but not this critic) a rather dubious last act.

Like the eponymously titled 2009 film, Star Trek Into Darkness holds true to the Trek of old - Abrams keeps on Trekkin', if you will - while also giving us a taste of the bold and the new.  From Spock and Uhura's strange bedfellow coupling (hot and heavy as a Pon Farr Summer) and a climactic chase scene on and over the streets of San Francisco to Chris Pine's snarky Shatneresque smile and the return, however brief, of Leonard Nimoy's iconic pointy-eared logician, Abrams' film still plays at crossing from one beloved universe into a new one, boldly going where...well, you know the rest.  And yes, Abrams' wonderfully decisive lens flares are here as well.  Now if we could only get some Klingon action.  The screenplay, written by Abrams' 2009 screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, this time joined by Abrams' old Lost buddy, Damon Linelof, is at times quaint and adoring, while also managing a sort of edge, even with some rather cornbally - though Trek-appropriate cornbally - dialogue mixed in.

What is most important is that in between the space tragedy and f/x spectacle (and those effects are quite spectacular by the by), we get a humour that hearkens back to the original series.  Pine and Zachory Quinto, as the younger Kirk and Spock (32 and 35 respectively, both actors are about the same age as Shatner and Nimoy, both 35 at the time, when they first played the roles) have a great chemistry on screen - a chemistry that also hearkens back to the original series.  Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Lt. Uhura, Simon Pegg as Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott (he is marvelous in the role actually), John Cho as Lt. Sulu and Anton Yelchin as Ensign Chekov, all returning from Abrams' opening reboot, are all form-fitting in their respective roles as well.  We even get a glimpse of the Klingons, but only a glimpse.  Seriously J.J., we want more Klingons.

And speaking of villains, this one has a doozy - even if it is not the Klingons.  This, by the way, is where you avert your eyes for fear of having things revealed that you may not wish revealed - though to be honest, none of it is really all that much of a surprise.  The doozy of a villain of whom I speak, is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the English actor with the great name and the even greater voice, and his performance as old foe returneth, that old s.o.b., Khan Noonien Singh, is pitch perfect.  First seen in the 1967 original series episode, "Space Seed", and then encountered again in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (played by Ricardo Montalbán in both excursions), the character is a superstrong human with murder in his eyes and revenge on his tongue, and Cumberbatch brings the old villain back to glorious, menacing life here.  He may not be as flamboyant as Montalbán was, but then Ricardo was quite the drama queen, wasn't he?

Now there are a few of my fellow critical compatriots, who have complained about what Abrams does with the character and where he takes the film in its final act.  Some more critical than I have gone so far as to call this final act a cheat and a rip-off, and even plagiarism, which is just ridiculous, and I don't believe that for a second.  Not to give anything away, but Abrams, instead of creating something truly new (as he did in 2009), revisits many of the aspects of The Wrath of Khan, sometimes changing who does what and what happens to whom (in the whole character dynamic, what happens does make sense though), perhaps revisiting some aspects a bit too much and a bit too closely for this to be anything truly new and boldly refreshing for some, but I must admit, when a certain character does a certain thing which I was wondering if this certain character was going to do, it was quite a thrill - and I may actually have done an inadvertent fist pump to myself when this thing did happen.

Sure, Into Darkness may not have flipped my switch quite the same way the bold, new Abrams' first Trek did - an iconic thing in the making there - though it is only lesser by a minute amount, and it most certainly is still a damn entertaining piece of space adventure, and its final shot leads one to believe - to hope even - there is more to come, even if J.J. is heading off to the Star Wars universe soon, to deal with Wookiees and space pirates and Jedi Knights, and may not do the next Trek, if there is indeed a next Trek (no one has directed more than two Trek films btw).  I suppose, in the whole pantheon of Trek, I would place this nugget neatly in at fifth place amongst the twelve theatrical films.  Perhaps not up there with Abrams' first go-around, nor with Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home or the original, often overlooked, 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but good enough to be on par with Search for Spock and Generations, and surely above the rest.  But I am nerding out now, so I shall digress.

From a purely cinematic standpoint, much like the oft-mentioned here 2009 edition, Into Darkness is a boon for both the faithful and the virgins.  No, you need not know anything about the Prime Directive, or that Carol Marcus and Jim Kirk will eventually have a child together (at least in the so-called Prime Universe they do), or how a warp drive works or get the little references (Tribbles AND Harry Mudd) or feel a nostalgic pang for the lovable gruff of Bones McCoy or the cocksure flabbergasting of Scotty, or why it is such a nerdgasm to have that aforementioned certain character do that certain thing, to truly enjoy this film (nerding out again!).  Sure, it helps to know the mythos of this world, but it is not necessary - and that is how J.J. Abrams makes peace in the chaotic universe of Star Trek, and perhaps in his upcoming rebooting of that other Star-related franchise as well.  To steal and paraphrase a line from you-know-who (both Prime and New Universe versions), may this series truly live long and prosper.  Now really, let's bring on the Klingons.

Retro Review: J.J. Abram's Star Trek (2009)

The following is part of a series where I bring back some of my "older" reviews (those written during my 2004-2011 tenure at the now mostly defunct The Cinematheque) and offer them up to a "newer" generation.  With the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, I figured this was as good a time as any to look back at J.J. Abram's first rebooting of the Trek Universe.  On a side note, if someone were to ask me to name the best review I have ever written, I believe I would have to go with the one you are about to read - so we have that going for it as well.  Enjoy.  My review of Star Trek Into Darkness will be up and running either Thursday or Friday.

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Forty-three years after Gene Roddenberry first boldly went where no one had gone before and thirty years after the first cinematic endeavor and twenty-two years after the coming of the next generation and seven years after the last movie attempt (and at least fifteen years after anyone really cared anymore), Star Trek has been reborn - or should I say, rebooted.

Daring us to once again boldly go, while at the same time tagging us with the bold statement that this was no longer our father's Star Trek (or in the case of us "older folks" who grew up with the original series - "our" Star Trek), TV wunderkind J.J. Abrams, probably the best mainstream director working today, has managed the seemingly impossible.   He has made a Star Trek so ingrained with four plus decades of sci-fi mythology as to please even the most discerning of die-hard Trekkers (even those still living in their parent's basement at near middle age - their own phasers set on stun) while at the same time keeping it youthful enough, modern enough, to bring aboard those legions of novice Starfleet cadets that the franchise is in so desperate need of gaining.  Abrams, just like a young and cocky James Tiberius Kirk, has beaten the unbeatable Kobayashi Maru - and he only cheated a little.   How's that for a reference sure to confound all those aforementioned neophyte cadets yet thrill the legions of Trek nerds I boldly announce myself as completely in tune with?
 

Using the time-tested (pun very much intended) Trek standby (re: cheat) of time travel to create what is in essence an alternate reality Star Trek, Abrams comes aboard, as brash and full of bravado as Chris Pine's newly retooled rebel without a cause, Kirk himself, with not just a beloved sci-fi universe rolled out in front of him, but with the suave beauty of a clean slate to boldly go wherever he damn well pleases - and boldly he does indeed go.  Abrams (born mere months before the original series first flew into living rooms across America) can have his space cake and eat it to - and blow it up if he wants (which he does in part).   Just like Roddenberry back in '66, it lays at his feet for him to do with whatever he so desires.  After seeing the finished product, this self admitted Star Trek nerd can safely say he believes that Roddenberry is looking down from his resting place amongst the stars with a happy heart - or at least he damn well should be, because Abrams has created a loving tribute to the universe that Roddenberry created oh those forty plus years ago.

The story begins, as always, in the heat of battle.   A federation ship is being attacked by Nero, a renegade Romulan looking more like a Maori beyond Thunderdome than the traditional Romulan of Trek lore.  When the ship's captain is summoned over to the Romulan's obvious deathtrap, he places a young officer by the name of George Kirk in command.   To make a long story short, Kirk goes down with his ship after making sure the crew, along with his giving-birth-right-now wife and their fresh-faced new son, one James Tiberius Kirk, are shuttled off to safety.  It is pure space opera and it works on just that level.  After this we get backstories and character introductions (and even get to see cadet Kirk's tryst with a green-skinned alien) and finally just why that damned Nero is so pissed off at the federation - and especially Spock.  We even get allusions to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Nero screeches Spock!!! into the otherwise soundproof environs of space just as Shatner's Kirk yelled Khan!!!.  It's just as cheesy and just as fun.   Pauline Kael once wrote of the second Trek movie that it was "wonderful dumb fun" and this is certainly no different - and I too, just like the late Miss Kael, mean that with the utmost sincerity and adoration.

And the new cast, the veritable nexus of chat room speculation and argumentative controversy ever since Abrams' revamping plans began to first unfold, works as well.   Chris Pine as the iconic Captain Kirk is a twenty-something horndog roustabout who joins Starfleet more out of spite or on a dare than out of any sense of duty.  The perpetually brooding Zachary Quinto plays the even more iconic Mr. Spock with a Vulcan calmness just this side of emotional eruption.  He looks so much like Nimoy one must wonder if he wasn't born to play the part.  Karl Urban, in one of the most dead reckoning impersonations in the group, plays Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy with the same bug-eyed curmudgeonry as DeForest Kelly's original grizzled anti-social country doctor with a taste for bourbon and a definitive distaste for space travel.  Then there is Simon Pegg doing Scotty in high brogue as only a comic actor can and should do him.  My one major criticism of the film is there is not enough Scotty (he doesn't even make an appearance until around minute 85 or 90).  We also get Zoe Saldana as the smokin' hot Uhura in retro mini skirt and gogo boots (she really doesn't have much else to do), John Cho (Harold, sans Kumar) as the helmsman Sulu, Anton Yelchin as a seventeen year old Pavel Chekov, with a major case of 23rd century ADD, Bruce Greenwood as the ill-fated Captain Christopher Pike, Ben Cross and Winona Ryder as Spock's star-crossed parents, Eric Bana as the aforementioned Khan-esque Nero and even Tyler Perry as a Starfleet Admiral (luckily not trying to be "very funny").

All the favorite characters are here (but where are Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand?) fulfilling their duty as newly appointed icons, replete with all the old standard lines that have become part of sci-fi lore, but still, as always, this is the Kirk and Spock show.  Philosophically set against each other - Kirk and Spock, body and mind - we watch the beginnings of an eternal struggle put to rest by the almost symbiotic way these two opposite reactions work together toward the same goal.  Both are great in the parts but it is Pine who has the decidedly tougher mountain to climb.   Pine has to channel the bravura of Shatner's Kirk but also avoid falling into the drama queen over excess of Shatner the actor.  A friend describes Shatner lovingly (sort of) as that embarrassing uncle who tries to get you to fish around in his pocket for a present.   Shatner's presence, bloated jackass or not (and don't get me wrong, I loved him in the original role), will always be there and yet Pine manages to parlay only the good into his transformation into Captain James T. Kirk.

Yet, the old school Trekker in me (I was just two years old when the original series was canceled due to low ratings!? but grew up on the seventies reruns) cannot help but keep returning to Leonard Nimoy's Spock Prime.   More than just a glorified cameo, Spock Prime, who's inadvertent delineation of the known timeline which flips everything on its head is the nadir of the film's story, is the very heart and soul of the new Star Trek.  Watching Nimoy back where he belongs and obviously loving every moment of his trek back home (pun intended again) is like once again seeing that beloved childhood friend you never even realized you missed like crazy but who has been in the back of your mind for years and years and years.  Just as Nimoy has gone home again (and who said you couldn't?) so to has this once, and always, impressionable perpetual youth.

Forty-three years of pop culture references - from South Park and Family Guy to Galaxy Quest, SNL and even That 70's Show - and the franchise of Star Trek, with its phasers and communicators and its "beam me up Scotty" apocryphals, is still alive.  Perhaps it has been on life support for a while now - kept alive long after any real interest in the later spin-offs and elongated episodic cinematic endeavors has gone as kaput as a red-shirted ensign on a landing party - but no matter how sick it may have become, the imagery has never died.  It is this very pop culture and all the mythos and iconography which surrounds it that makes Abrams reboot work as well as it does.  His sleek new look that never takes away from the now-retro original series is a pitch-perfect melange of old and new sensibilities.  My critical half (aka my pretentious half) is inline with my nerd half and I too can have my cake and eat it as well.

In the final scene, when everyone is on the bridge in those iconic (and somewhat cooler) original episode uniforms - I actually got chills (god, I am a nerd!!!) and Pine's subtle Shatneresque smirk and slap on Bones' shoulder and the way he sits in that captain's chair, legs crossed a la Shatner, along with the obvious love and care in giving us Nimoy's Spock "Prime", shows that though this is not our father's Star Trek and is definitely boldly going where no one has gone before, it would and could still hold high reverence for all that had come before it.  The mythology is still there and yet, like Zefram Cochrane making first contact, Abrams brings new life to this long dead Phoenix and we realize we can boldly go anywhere from here.  What more could we ever ask for?  Now bring on the Klingons.  Live long and prosper. 

[Originally published at The Cinematheque on 05/09/09]