Star Trek (2009)-a review by fireproof78   
Greetings DIF community,

With the discussion of Star Trek: Into the Darkness, I decided to post a review and discussion for Star Trek (2009) movie. I often feel on the wrong side of this movie for liking it, not because of the static it gets but just feel that I see it differently. Call it bias, call it naiveté, call it guilty pleasure but I see more good in this movie than bad. Well, I’ll let the rest speak for itself

I’m taking a little different take than most reviews in that I will often quote or cite other reviews or critiques. Please forgive this form of writing as it comes from years of school writing. To simplify this review for the sake of brevity, I’ve divided it up into sections-one is a general review covering story, acting, ect. The second part is called “Nerd-picks” more detailed discussion in to the nerdier aspects of the movie, Starfleet, starships, and other aspects that expand my point of view.
This is fair warning that it will be lengthy, and a little research thrown in from various reviews and other things that I have read. My hope is to pull from many different ideas and views of this movie and Star Trek in general to cast the film in a different light.
With that warning aside, here is part one:

Story and Themes:

This part is full of ups and downs, as many of the community will agree. Most of the downs come from the apparent need to jam all of the original crew back together, but don’t bother with the details. However, the general story is that Earth/Federation is in danger, the Enterprise must save it. That is pretty standard Star Trek fair, right?

The main difference is that the enemy outmatches them in every which way, from technology, to madness, to willingness to commit genocide. Kirk is not even graduated from the Academy when he gets aboard the Enterprise and has to face down a villain who has nothing left to loose, not even those last two marbles rattling around in Nero’s head.

But, for my part, I am willing to grant coincidences to a movie, including this one, because most movies function on them. The fact that Kirk lived near were the Enterprise was being built is not a coincidence per se. It is implied that Kirk’s mother is in Starfleet, so why wouldn’t she be living near a Starfleet base?

Other coincidences include Kirk meeting McCoy, Chekov and Sulu, Spock setting up the Kobyashi Maru test, and Scotty being on Delta Vega. Again, for my part, I am willing to give those a pass because it’s a movie, and Starfleet needed a few good men and women. In the nitpick section below I will delve more in to the coincidences, but it is heavier on the nerd side of things so I will let only the nerdy go there. However, I would like to remind my reading audience that “Back to the Future,” “Star Wars,” and several other franchises depended on coincidences as plot devices, centering around specific groups of characters and families, rather than the whole of Hill Valley. Just food for thought.

Moving on with the rest of the story, I found it entertaining, if stretching the bounds of realism a bit. However, Nero’s attempt to destroy the entire Federation is proper motivation for a villain, and is enough to keep me interested in how it all works out. Many points have been made that Nero’s motivation makes no sense, from a plot point, but I will disagree. Nero is crazy, and he states his intended purpose-to protect Romulus he will destroy the Federation. No, it doesn’t make sense because a natural disaster destroyed Romulus. But, Nero is not thinking logically. He is motivated by revenge upon Spock and upon the entire Federation. I want to stress that he is insane. To him, in order to save Romulus, he must destroy the Federation. By capturing Spock and being sent back in time, he has the means to do it.
The use of red matter as a science fiction “magic bean” is appropriately used, without technobabble to slow it down. It works by creating artificial black holes. Normal black holes may not function like this, but these are not normal. And artificial black holes are not new to Star Trek either. In one Original Series episode an Earth probe falls through a black hole and ends up on a different part of the galaxy. In the Next Generation, Romulan ships use artificial singularities to power their ships.

Within the story, the stakes are perfectly set. Sorry to sound cliché but the entire Federation is at risk of being destroyed by a crazy person.  Kirk and Spock take some pretty far leaps of logic to save the Federation, but that doesn’t mean they do not make sense within the world. Kirk knows that Nero will just keep destroying and that the only way to beat him is to do something unexpected, even if it means disobeying orders. Spock tries to follow orders, almost blindly at times, while keeping his emotions (barely) under control. Ultimately, they find a balance point, which is one of the main themes of the story-Kirk and Spock forming a friendship.

It is an interesting conflict to see being worked out. Spock is the quintessential perfect Starfleet officer. He is one of the most distinguished graduates, an instructor at the Academy (not serving on the Enterprise as Pike’s science officer like in “The Cage”), as well as regarded highly enough by Pike to serve aboard the flagship later on as executive officer.

Kirk is brash and undisciplined, the very emotion that Spock is constantly fighting within himself. If Spock is the perfect officer, Kirk is the class clown. All fire and passion but absolutely no discipline.  Spock’s remark that a horse must first be broken in order to reach its full potential is certainly true because Kirk is one to run in and fight rather than stand back and think. But, Kirk certainly needs the discipline and example of Spock and Pike to become the officer we know him as in the Original Series.

One of my biggest gripes against this movie is the fact that things happen too fast. Uhura monitors a distress call from the Klingon homeworld then the next day the fleet is summoned to Vulcan. Kirk apparently sleeps for several hours under a mild sedative, since their arrival to Vulcan is in about three minutes after he wakes up. Immediately after Spock discovers Kirk’s cheat, a board of inquiry is summoned with little pomp or warning. The whole world seems to turn on a hair trigger of rapid fire events.

The pacing just requires a little more room to breathe and I think it would flow a lot better than just jumping from moment to moment with little time between the two. I think the entire movie may have occurred in 24 hours, save for the beginning, and could have been called Star Trek: 24.

The story is not heavy handed with preaching any sort of idealism or platitudes. However, of the many reviews I listened to or read as part of writing this, there is two themes that are missed in any review. I would like to touch on them here, as well as show how the movie does this so well.

First theme is that of family, specifically fathers. Spock’s family is central to his life, to the point that any time his mother is brought up he loses his cool, starting when the other Vulcan children bully him. His father provides the balance of brining logic and teaching him to control his emotions. “Logic gives us a serenity that few humans experience,” Sarek tells a young Spock. Spock’s journey in the movie is not one of rising through the ranks of Starfleet, but bridging the two halves of himself.
In contrast, we get Kirk. Kirk Sr. is killed doing his duty, but it leaves James Kirk without any guidance. He grows up ambitionless, seeking only thrills to satisfy him. Eventually he ends up in a bar, and we are left to guess how often he goes there, but I would infer frequently, given Pike’s question about Kirk liking being a repeat offender.

It’s Captain Pike’s entrance that brings change to Kirk’s life, the introduction of a father figure. Pike’s influence on Kirk gives him direction and a challenge to become more, to rise above his current life and do better. Pike’s fatherly influence puts Kirk on the path to become the man we as an audience know he will become, but he needed direction and steering. All potential, and no direction-that is the Kirk we are introduced to.

It’s kind of an odd parallel to consider Kirk and Spock in this movie. My background in school is psychology so I have heard this analogy probably in class. In the original series, Spock served as the logical superego, the part of the mind that provided moral guidance and clarity, rules and regulations. Bones was the id, passionate, emotional, and representing the basic impulses that drive a human being. Kirk was the ego, balancing between the two before making the decision.

In the new movie, Bones, unfortunately, factors little in to this equation. Instead, Pike serves as the ego, for a time, but Kirk is more the id, impulsive, brash, arrogant and generally full of himself. It takes Pike’s fatherly influence, and mentoring to provide Kirk a model to become a starship captain.

It is the influence of fathers that directs the movie’s two main characters. Sarek serves as the voice of balance, teaching Spock that he is proud of his son for being a child of two worlds and strongly desires Spock to embrace both sides of himself. Likewise, Pike serves as the catalyst of change, motivating and challenging Kirk to grow beyond what Kirk settles for. Pike becomes the mentor that in the original timeline was filled by Kirk’s own father. We are given insight in to this when Kirk as Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) if he knew his father in that time. Spock Prime tells him yes, and that he was the influence for his joining Starfleet. If you watch that scene, the pain of not knowing his father, the sense of loss, is evident on young Kirk’s face.

The second theme is that of friendship. Closely related to the family theme, we see Kirk and Spock’s rocky road to friendship, but along the way Kirk bonds with several other crew members, willing to risk his life to save Sulu, trying to save Scotty (misgivings about the rest of the scene aside) and trying to save the rest of the lives on Earth. But, Kirk is willing to recognize each crewmember’s strengths and using them to their advantage. He brings Chekov in for his idea, as well as consults the rest of the crew to plan their attack on Nero. Kirk’s ability as a leader includes having a competent crew at his side, and the developing of friendships within the characters is another theme that grows with Kirk in this movie.

Characters:

The characters really speak for themselves as each cast member gets their moment to shine. When I first read the releases of each actor and actress, I honestly felt a sense of dread (Sylar as Spock? Really?) as this did not seem to fit what I expected for the younger Star Trek crew. However, watching the film was a different experience for me. Each character presented the personality of the original character, without being an impersonation or parody.

Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy and Zachary Quinto as Spock are two shining examples of the cast. Urban presents McCoy as irritable and gruff while still caring doctor, but never lapses in to farce. Instead, Urban feels like a natural, younger Bones who could just as easily operate as have a drink.
Quinto, likewise, provides such a fantastic performance, constantly bringing the emotionless balance to Pine’s Kirk. Just like Nimoy, Quinto also provides wonderful subtly in his acting, often showing little cracks in Spock’s logical expression, hinting at the emotion underneath. A classic scene is Spock before the Vulcan Science Academy board, where he tells them, “Live long and prosper,” while his tone and facial expression indicate neither. It’s a great moment and one of several carried forward by a strong performance.

Pine’s Kirk is a little uneven at first, but I think he grows in to the character at the end. Again, there isn’t the sense of imitation to his performance, but I think that it also the stage that Kirk is in his life that may come off as such. Pine performs with a lot of gusto and flair and adds so much energy to movie that I find his character growth and change very engaging and entertaining.

Greenwood’s  Pike is probably my favorite character of all, as he presents a leader who is both balanced and charismatic. Honestly, he almost is like Kirk was in TOS and provides solid example of the officer that Kirk will eventually become.

Eric Bana’s Nero is perfectly crazy. I know there is a lot of criticism regarding him as a villain, but I found him to be convincing as a man who has lost everything and is struggling with the loss and dishing out as much pain as he possibly can. I can’t stress  enough that Nero is supposed to be insane. To us, as the average movie audience, he looks irrational. That’s because he is supposed to be irrational. Nero, as mentioned before, reacts to his emotions, and he is dealing with anger, pain and loss on a scale that would drive anyone insane. He blames the Federation for inaction and lashes out against them. I like him because he is insane.

Overall, the actors bring wonderful life to each character, and add an interesting perspective to the crew we know and love. If one performance I found lacking was Simon Pegg’s Scotty. It may have been how he was introduced but it felt he didn’t really fit in with the rest of the crew, though it may be that we didn’t have more time to get to know him. I do like how he plays off of his little assistant, though he keeps yelling at him. Plus, his beaming away Archer’s beagle is a great aside.

Even the characters who don’t get a lot of time do a great job. My favorite, non-main, character is Captain Robaeu, who brings such an intensity and leadership, even in the simple way he commands Kirk Sr. and confronts Nero. It’s a simple role but it is done so well that I would honestly watch a show about the Kelvin and her crew.

Similarly, Chris Hemsworth brings a very passionate and emotive role as Kirk Sr, despite the brief time on screen. The moment of him hearing his son being born and the emotions that are there within him come across so beautifully and brings me to tears every time. That whole opening sequence is incredibly well done and with Hemsworth’s emotions and performance drive that scene forward.

The characters are the strongest piece of this film. Like I mentioned in the story section, this film is largely about family coming together. The family connections that come across are due to the strong performances brought forward by the cast led strongly by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. The movie does a decent job of giving each crew member opportunities to shine and show the growing relationships among the ensemble.

Visuals and Design:

This film is a spectacle. It has often been referred to as a Star Wars movie, with all the special effects, the explosions, large and fast, and pretty looking. While not a slight against the movie, it tends to distract from the story, or the movie relies too heavily on the visual effects to tell the story. A good for-instance is the red matter-visually interesting but not described or defined well enough to provide a grounding for this new substance.

For the most part, the visuals do contribute to the film, especially during the battles, with the explosions and phasers firing and holes opening in the ship. Many times the effects add to gravity of a situation, such as the battle between the Kelvin and the Narada when a crewmember is sucked out in to space.

Another part of the visuals is the design of the movie, from the new look of the Enterprise to the uniforms and other redesign aspects of this new perspective are presented in a vivid way that compliments the debut on the big screen. The uniforms in particular stand out, having bold colors and textures that work well with the dynamic action unfolding in the story. It is nice to see the primary colors happening on the big screen, especially against the mostly white bridge set.

It is an especially interesting contrast to move from the Kelvin’s uniforms and sets earlier in the film, which have a more submarine feel to them than the newer Starfleet in primary colors and the white bridge. The Kelvin definitely feels like an in-between stage of Starfleet from the Enterprise era to the Original Series Era.

The new bridge is an interesting change, but it still is a decent modernization of the TOS era bridge, though with far more going on. As with many of the visuals of this film, there is a lot of activity going on, with a variety of monitors, stations and effects that seem to fill the whole set with just consoles. However, to me, it is a nice feel of keeping the white starkness, and cleanness of the original, before Aliens and Star Wars introduced the idea of a used universe. I liked the idea of seeing the white sets of the Original with modern view and this movie didn’t disappoint.

However, the sets are not all perfect. The Engineering section does not feel enough like it a futuristic engineering power plant for this modern and is one criticism that I agree with.

The overall feel of the Enterprise is, to paraphrase another review, is “hypercharged.”  The Enterprise design takes the original and hot rod’s it, for lack of a better term. Of course, the visual is a matter of personal taste and preference, as I can hardly argue from an engineering standpoint as to the soundness of the design, of either the new one or the original. I like the colors of the new ship, but the nacelles are a little too big.

The overall visual feel of the film is well done, creating a visual style that stands on its own while paying respect to the source material.

Conclusion:
Many aspects of this film are well done, especially the characters, who drive the story and the challenges that ultimately will bring them together and forge them in to a family that would be the positive crew of leaders for a new future. While it has some missteps, especially in its pacing, the overall themes of family and personal growth, plus the adventure of the crew coming together, is enough for me to keep watching this film again and again, analyzing it to death, as will be shown in Nerd Picks section.