To Boldly Go Where Others Have Gone Before...

I saw Star Trek today. JJ Abrams' Star Trek.

Now, before I proceed with this review, I guess I need to set up the background a bit. I grew up with Star Trek, and not just TNG. I started from the beginning. I was so excited when I could do the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" hand thing. Spock, Kirk, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, and KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN were household names. Bones was one of my first crushes. I learned the Hamlet monologue from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. One of my youngest childhood memories is seeing TUC with my dad, and being SO engulfed in it that I had to pee and wouldn't go. I was in pain on the way home but it was worth it, because I got to see Star Trek on the big screen. Star Trek was a HUGE part of my childhood. I am proud to admit that I am a Trekkie. (For a non Trekkie's thoughts on the movies, check out my friend Jordan's review HERE.It's exquisite. :D)

That being said, when it leaked that JJ Abrams was making a Star Trek movie, I was thrilled. Then I found out it was a Kirk/Spock prequel, as opposed to a TNG sequel. I cried. I was so excited. The casting experience was a trying time for me... I was thrilled with some selections, not so much with others. As time went on, I grew more and more excited for the cast, and the movie.

Then it got pushed back. What started as a geek's excited wait for a geeky film became a 2 year long obsession over what promised to be an epic action film. The wait was long, trying... my Spock poster seemed to mock me at times. Every thing began to drag my mind back to Star Trek and how far away it was. Preview after preview made me more and more excited. I began pulling up clips of my favorite episodes and movies on youtube, rereading my Star Trek novels, anything that would keep me in the Federation while still taking my mind off the movie. I was hyped. People went to see it, and I got nothing but good review after good review, save for one negative review that scoffed at Quantum Physics (I'll address that later.) I finally saw it today with my family - my WHOLE family, even my aunt. We're a Star Trek family, we all grew up on it. The ad campaign, "This isn't your father's Star Trek" didn't really apply to me... it was my Star Trek, too. I knew all the little jokes, all the little hints and cool names for things. It was my Star Trek... and I was sooo excited.

It was hailed as "This Year's Iron Man." I loved Iron Man. My favorite movie of last summer. LOVED it. Having said that... I disagree with the statement.

It was SO MUCH BETTER than Iron Man!!!!! Yes, that's right - I'm a trekkie that is going to stand before and say I was pleased with that movie. No, no, scratch that. I wasn't PLEASED. I was OVERWHELMED. I cried. I laughed. I bounced in my seat. It was every bit the Star Trek I grew up with and I was so excited for that. I loved every little bit of the movie!!! EVERY LITTLE BIT! For those few hours in that movie theater, I was a little girl again, trying not to pee for as long as possible because I was once again watching my beloved Star Trek, my TOS, on the big screen.



THE CAST

Chris Pine/James T. Kirk: Chris Pine WAS Kirk. There was no doubt about it, from the moment he hit on Uhura at the bar. His arrogance was portrayed perfectly, 2 parts cocky, 1 part confident. Thinking outside the box, unable to accept losing... you don't want to like him but can't help it because he's freaking HOT and he's a good person underneath. The odds don't matter - either we go down, or they do. Pine was amazing. There were so many instances where I had to convince myself that he wasn't always Jim, that this was his first time. Amazing. Absolutely AMAZING.

Zachary Quinto/Spock: There was never any doubt, but I was still blown away by Quinto's portrayal of the half Vulcan, half human. There was a completely new side to him, a new depth to the character that I absolutely loved. Due to the tweaks in the reality, he was a different beast, but still carried on the same characteristics that made Spock the icon he is. I loved him just as much as Nimoy!Spock.

John Cho/Hikaru Sulu: He was surprisingly amazing. I wasn't sure, seeing as I'd only seen Cho in a few things, but he was really really good as Sulu. He was quiet, yet BA. He fumbled a few times, but his ability to adapt to each and every situation only made one smile... especially if they knew his destiny to become Captain.

Anton Yelchin/Pavel Chekov: In my Star Trek photo album on facebook, I describe him as Anton "I'm adorable" Yelchin. I wasn't lying. Yelchin's portrayal of the 17 year old Russian was nothing short of ADORABLE. He didn't resemble the original Chekov too much, but he had the characteristics down fairly well, and was still able to portray him as a young, excited kid. Everything he did was absolutely adorable. I can't think of any other word. He made me smile, I wanted to pinch his cheeks. I wanted to hug him... he was so cute. I loved it.

Zoe Saldana/Nyota Uhura: BEAUTIFUL! Zoe Saldana was able to capture all the simple, elegant, beauty of Uhura. She had the calmness, the skill... she was perfect. I loved her completely. Her quiet intensity brought a depth to the character that made me think of the old days, the old movies. Amazing.

Simon Pegg/Montgomery Scott: I'm unable to put this one into words, no joke. He was Scotty... that's all I can say. He WAS Scotty. He did a great job. I have a new found respect for him, he's a great actor... he WAS Scotty. :)

Karl Urban/Leonard McCoy: I cried when DeForest Kelley died. I was always a Bones girl growing up, and because DeForest Kelley was such a character actor, there was no difference in my mind between him and Bones. They were the same person. When he died, it was like a part of my childhood was gone... but when Karl Urban was on that shuttle... when he opened his mouth and started arguing with that woman... it was like he was back. BONES was back. I cried again. Everything he said, the way he carried himself... the way he acted toward Jim and Spock... the way he reacted to everything... it's like he's back from the dead. Karl Urban did a fantastic job, and I'm so glad. The inability to nail this character to a T would have ruined the movie for me. I'm simply amazed, and so thrilled. I thought this new movie would make me a Kirk or Spock girl, but I was mistaken. I still am - and forever will be - a Bones girl. :) He had some of my favorite lines of the movie, and he really did take control of the character and establish him. Same old McCoy, no matter WHAT reality.



THE PLOT ------SPOILER ALERT------

As the preview tells us, this Star Trek was a prequel to the first movies. It encompases the crew's years as they're fresh out of Starfleet Academy. The movie starts out with a Romulan ship traveling back in time and destroying the U.S.S. Kelvin, killing Kirk's father in the process, but not before his wife gives birth to their baby boy... his father dies a hero, and it made for quite the tear jerking opening scene.

Fast forward a few minutes - Vulcan is sending out a distress signal and the starships are manned to fight the menace! We find out that Vulcan is under attack by the same Romulan menace that destroyed the Kelvin - cleverly deduced by Kirk - and the Enterprise engages in a sudden battle. The crew of the Enterprise does it's best, but Vulcan is still destroyed, and Spock's mother is killed in the process. After a confrontation with Kirk, Spock launches the rogue deemed first officer to the surface of Delta Vega. There, Kirk meets Spock Prime, who tells him all about the events that unfold in the future.

129 years in the future, a star goes super nova, and Spock promises the Romulans that he'll save Romulus... but he fails. In an attempt to still defeat the Supernova, Spock creates a "red matter bomb" and creates a black hole. This is witnessed by Nero, who then decides to go after Spock. Having lost his family when Romulus was destroyed, Nero sets out to cause Spock the same pain he feels, and is helped along when the black hole Spock created takes them not only to another time, but another reality, where Nero's destruction of the Kelvin sets a similar, yet slightly different set of events in motion.

It is now Kirk's job to unite the crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise and stop Nero before Earth suffers the same fate as Vulcan.

Yes - there were tweaks to Star Trek canon. However, they were handled in a way that is deemed acceptable. The Quantum Physics theory was absolutely acceptable. One person claimed it was a cop out for Abrams, so he could change whatever he wanted, but in reality, it was a genius move to make. Alternate Reality is not a foreign concept when talking of Star Trek. That path has been taken before, just not in a movie. The movie was done so beautifully that it worked, no matter what the differences were. The movie never claimed to be canon... on the contrary, it claimed that it "wasn't your father's star trek." It had enough jokes (The BEAGLE! The RED SHIRT!) to please Trekkies, while at the same time making a beautiful movie, full of action and hilarity. The action scenes were amazing, a little more than traditional movies, but enough like them to where it wasn't too upsetting. Abrams didn't use Quantum Physics and Alternate Reality as a cop out, he used it for his movie... more importantly, he created a movie that was Star Trek enough to not put the franchise to shame, and yet still awesome enough to pull in more fans of the genre. Not to mention, he opened the door for a whole new world to be explored... and isn't that what Star Trek is all about? To boldly go where no man has gone before, rather than give us the same story line we've seen over and over again?? Yes, he could have played it safe, given us a prequel to the Star Trek movies we've already seen, but what fun would that be? He went there... he gave us a story line that was enough Star Trek to keep old fans interested. He gave us a cast we could fall in love with without feeling like we're betraying the old one. He gave us a story line that has more potential than a "by the book" prequel could have ever dared to offer.

It was amazing. I don't know what else to say. It was simply amazing. If ever anyone has boldly gone anywhere, Abrams has... and I'm more than willing to engage warp engines, and go there with him.

Bravo, Mr. Abrams, bravo. You've made this trekkie proud.