You’d have thought big old V8s would be a thing of the past too – but the boy James T is hooning around in one, with God knows what manner of horses under the bonnet. Meanwhile, back on Vulcan, the boy Spock is getting bullied in a very illogical way on account of his human mother.
Yep, this is Star Trek, Jim, but not as we knew it. Our doughty crew is just starting out on stellar careers, and even James T and Uhura don’t hit it off right away. Heck, James T doesn’t even want to join Star Fleet, and manages to rub the unflappable Spock up the wrong way. Is this an alternate Star Trek universe? Well, actually it is.
This movie is what its makers call a `reboot’, a little like the `reimagining’ of Battlestar Galactica for TV, but way more engaging. It’s the best trip into the Star Trek universe since the 70s, one that more than makes up for the dire Enterprise TV series. The lovable space rogues are even more lovable as space cadets, with the hand picked cast reprising the original roles so successfully that we can fall in love with them all over again.
Bad guy Nero (Eric Bana) is being hotly pursued by Leonard Nimoy as the Spock we already know and love. Nero scoots through a black hole into the past and immediately sets about changing the future. Bana looks as if he is having the best fun as a tattooed Romulan seeking revenge for the destruction of his planet, and his presence is another joy in a movie that brings back the old excitement Trekkers have been craving.
Ever since that talkfest Star Trek: The Next Generation, things have been getting far too PC. It was only when they brought back the old crew, and Uhura did her fan dance in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, that it started to look up.
Star Trek 2009 takes us back again to the well loved, two fisted, action all the way Star Trek universe, where Kirk doesn’t give a hoot for the rules, Scotty is wailing about his dilithium crystals and Bones thinks Vulcans are cold blooded jerks. The new Bones channels the old in a fantastic performance from New Zealand actor Karl Urban. A delicious Uhura (Zoe Saldana) wears a mini-skirt and flirts up a storm with Spock (well, that is new, but not unwelcome) and Chekov’s Russian accent is even more atrocious.
It augurs well for future Star Trek movies. Because the future has been changed, Kirk and his crew can set out on their five year mission again and boldly go where no one has been before (oh, yes, they kept that one bit of PC) and explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations to our heart’s delight.
Make it so, Jim.
I purchased this DVD with my own funds.
Star Trek (Two-Disc Digital Copy Edition)
Star Trek: The Original Series 365
