After over a year of anticipation, the latest product from the Star Trek franchise was released in theaters today. Titled simply “Star Trek”, its release marks the eleventh film of this science fiction universe. As a loyal fan of the series, my skepticism ran deep as this film is a dramatic departure from the classic formula that Trekkers alike have come to know and believe in. With only one familiar face (Leonard Nimoy, Spock) linking the past with the future, it seemed unlikely that the film would exhibit a natural progression from the previous films. Never the less, the impressive visuals evidenced in the cinematic trailers were undeniable. Star trek lore aside, I had every confidence that this film would be great.
Confirmed on May 7th at 7:00 p.m., the film was everything I had hoped it would be. With innumerable references to previous shows and movies, the film stayed surprisingly true to the original laws of Trek while at the same time modernizing the 1970’s style of space travel. I highly recommend investing the extra dollars for the IMAX experience. The sound alone makes it worthwhile. The most notable performance in the film is that of Karl Urban who played Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy. He brought the essence of DeForest Kelley back to the roll in a manner that was very obvious, but never distracting. This really made the movie for me.
–Spoiler Alert–
If you have yet to see the film, you may want to stop reading at this point.
One of my initial curiosities about the film was how the writers plan to bring an Old Spock back into the story. The most obvious assumption was some form of time travel scenario. Star Trek has an extreme familiarity with this approach. The other, less enticing, idea would be some kind of flashback sequence in which the film opens with Old Spock retelling a story from his past, at which point the ‘Scooby Doo’ wavy lines overtake the screen and we watch the rest of the story unfold through the narration of Leonard Nimoy.
Fortunately, the later was not the case. Time travel, yet again, becomes a major plot element that bridges the past with the future. However, unlike every instance I can remember in Star Trek time travel, the story purposefully makes no attempt to rectify the timeline and restore order to the time space continuum once the bad guys have been stopped and everyone has been saved. This unorthodox decision was brilliant. With an alternate timeline, the franchise is now free to explore all new destinies for its characters. New adventures, new TV shows, new movies; they’re all made possible with the freedom to try new alternate outcomes for some of the more popular historical events of the Star Trek universe.
Needless to say, I look forward to boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before.
