Directed by J.J. Abrams
Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
A trend has arisen in films recently that in order to reboot a concept, you have to go back to the beginning. Some people see this as “back to basics”, but it seems others view it literally. Tell the origin. Show us how Macgyver first acquired a paperclip, how Big Bird moved to Sesame Street. It has worked to varying degrees for Batman, James Bond, and now- Star Trek. Rebooting a franchise that has a rabid fanbase is a tall order. But I’m not here to review whether fans were pleased. I want a good film. For the second time this year, the masses who demanded I see a hit summer blockbuster were proven to have no concept of what makes good cinema (the other, for the record, was the utterly terrible “The Hangover”).
Much like with ‘A Serious Man’, which made me wonder if non-Jews could possibly understand the film, similarly I would question if people who have never cared about Star Trek would begin to now. The new film is so deeply trying to reference the past incarnations of Star Trek that I began to play a game: Try to ignore the winks and nudges to see if anything made sense. Sadly, the answer is “no”. While the film admirably tries to get out of the rut set by the last several Star Trek films, everything ultimately comes down to story. Maybe I expect too much from a film getting back to the extremely campy basics of the original series, but when the concept of “logic” is thrown around endlessly surely they must have considered factoring the concept into the screenplay?
I constantly found myself questioning motivation for scene after scene where the only answer is “because it would be cooler that way” or “this one is for the fans” (what follows is a series of spoilers). Why, if the recruits haven’t reached the Federation academy yet, are they dressed in military attire in the bar scene where we first meet the adult James “thrice cliffhanger” Kirk? And why are they in Iowa at all when they’re out of towners on their way to school in San Francisco? What does Kirk study at the academy once he’s there, besides being a douche bag, and how did he sabotage the programming of the “Kobayashi Maru” when it’s clear he has no engineering skills whatsoever? I could go on, and I will. Why does Scotty get beamed to the Enterprise with Kirk, when he’s clearly been assigned another active duty, and for that matter, why is he then instantly a crewmember? Also, he is apparently the only engineer on the ship, despite the presence of many others, because he is both in charge of the transporter and the engines as different convenient moments. Here’s another one: Why does Captain Pike request the use of any bridge members who have combat skills to beam down and stop the Vulcan planet drill when he has an entire security team as part of his crew? What sense does it make to remove the ship’s pilot for this duty instead? Why does chief medical officer “Bones” McCoy hang out on the bridge in the second half of the film instead of being in the sick bay? And for that matter, he’s only afraid of space travel in the first scene but is totally cool with it from then on? The biggest one that irked me was why is Spock’s human mother on the council for the culture of all of Vulcan? The list just goes on and on but I think the point has been made.
The actors do their job with the material given; mostly acting as reflections or referential mouthpieces for the original cast (everyone has a catch phrase they have to utter at some point). The technical side of the film is very admirable. I actually came to appreciate the cinematography on the whole, lens flares in every shot and all. Unfortunately, when I’m sitting there thinking to myself “hey, there’s no lens flare in this particular shot” I am obviously being taken out of the cinema experience. Production design and costumes play a big role here as well, and do a good job in both updating and referencing the original series. These aspects, as well as the excellent CGI, help to pull the film from the one star range to get some points for production. I will also say that the direction of J.J. Abrams is good as well. The man knows how to tell a story and everyone knows this film was a challenge from the beginning. However a producer and director of his renown knows that story is king, and this script was a stinker almost all the way through. Suspension of disbelief is an essential part of cinema, and despite accepting this future world full of starships and aliens, I just couldn’t get behind it being so highly illogical.
** Two Stars – Watch it if you Must
Star Trek is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
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