On Screen

There was seemingly no good reason to revisit the Star Trek series.
Thousands of hours of crappy television shows and deflated
movies—not one interesting Star Trek movie has been made since
1986’s The Voyage Home, the campy-but-
energetic fourth
installment in the series—had taken their toll. The property had
fallen into the hands of fans-turned-pros who were strangulating the
premise with their adulation. But J. J. Abrams has somehow managed to
create the second-best entry in the series (after The Wrath of
Khan) and completely revitalize the premise for the 21st
century.

It’s almost impossible to envision a better reintroduction. The
casting is perfect, from Chris Pine’s arrogant, aggressive James T.
Kirk to Karl Urban’s weary, outraged Bones McCoy to, especially,
Zachary Quinto’s eerily spot-on Spock. Formerly listless characters
like Uhura and Chekov now have a purpose and a drive to round them out.
Star Trek‘s plot, involving time travel and a nefarious evil
Romulan named Nero (played to the hilt of snarling, summer-movie
villainy by a marble-mouthed Eric Bana) has to squeeze a lot in. Every
character has to say his catchphrase at least once, and the previous
generation—here represented by Leonard Nimoy—has to pass
the torch in a thoughtful, reverential way. Somehow, it all works.

There’s some muddle in the third act, and Abrams tries a little too
hard with his camerawork, especially when he unnecessarily bedazzles
the bridge scenes with an annoying lens-flare effect, but none of that
really matters. What matters is that this is an adventurous, fun, and
sexy movie that’s willing to laugh and let its audience in on the joke,
too. It’s literally been decades since a Star Trek movie has tried to
seduce a general audience, and with Abrams’s guidance, we realize that
the basic concept of Star Trek is a timeless, hugely entertaining one,
and well worth revisiting. Even before the closing credits roll, you’ll
be hoping for a sequel.