Star Trek Review: Live Long and Prosper

Destined to be this year’s Iron Man, the film begins with young James Tiberius Kirk’s birth; only in this universe Kirk’s father died sacrificing his life to save his wife and newborn sons. That and 800 innocent lives. A hellion even as a boy, young Kirk is raised by his mother and stepfather and apparently not terribly well for he almost dies when, as an adolescent, he nearly drives a car over a cliff. Leap forward in time to young adult Kirk and nothing has changed, taking on a bar full of Starfleet cadets he very nearly gets his ass kicked.

Though an alternate world this imagining of Kirk fits very nicely with what we know about Starfleet’s prime Captain. Oddly, Spock as well gets his ass kicked for very different reasons, but I’ll leave that to you to see how. These characters are so familiar, yet just different enough. The film is based around a time rift created by a black hole inadvertently made by the future Spock and a very, very angry Romulan. The Romulan, his home world destroyed, lusts for revenge and doesn’t give a damn who and how many he hurts to do it. The film develops from there.

Brilliant in concept, superb in execution and directed by a master, Star Trek absolutely rocks! Stunning performances and a great reimagining of prime characters make this film a must see and the film to beat for the summer. There is the “on the edge” Kirk (Chris Pine), the not always so logical Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the “Damn it Jim I’m a doctor not a nuclear physicist” Bones (Karl Urban) leading the cast and barely missing a step. The second level characters, Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) knocked it out of the park.

I was stunned with how quickly Chris Pine became James T. Kirk, blown away by Urban’s ability to be Bones without being cartoonish and Simon Pegg was so much like Scotty, that he must be possessed. Admittedly, Pegg is one of the finest comedic actors in the first quadrant, but he was as much Scotty as the original, taking nothing away from James Doohan, who created the great character. The one that surprised me was the beautiful Zoe Saldana, who played the somewhat enigmatic Uhura so well, that I finally began to understand the original character and what made her special. Last but not least, was the very young Chekov. This character could have been very tricky, but the young Yelchin captured him without trying to mimic him, a feat indeed and did not (as I feared) make too much a joke of the accent or young Russian.

One disappoint in the film is that I never got the real sense that Quinto captured the essence of the original Spock. There are reasons in the film to explain that, but I reserve judgment for the future, a great future indeed, for this possibly is the best remake of a film ever. This is a great movie, not just a great Star Trek movie and a must see for all movie fans. You will almost undoubtedly enjoy it, if not love it.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5

Related: Movie Junkie Podcast 156: Star Trek Review