Written by Hombre Divertido
In 1994 Paramount transitioned the Star Trek movie franchise from the original cast to the Next Generation cast in Generations, which conveniently served it’s purpose. Not a great film, but it worked. Captain Picard and his crew followed Generations with the huge home run First Contact in 1996, but then killed the franchise with the two yawners that were Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002). Since then Trek fans have had little to embrace other than the under-appreciated television series Enterprise which lasted until 2005.
The year 2008 was to be the rebirth for the franchise, but the writer’s strike kept anxious fans waiting another six months. On May 8, 2009, the highly anticipated re-tooling of the original series hit the big screen courtesy of Paramount and current Hollywood wonder boy J.J. Abrams.
Much like Generations, the film certainly serves its purpose in launching what is sure to be a profitable string of films, but unlike Generations, this film tends to be a bit over produced.
The 2009 version of Star Trek reintroduces us to the original cast of characters from the 1966 television series, in relative infancy in their respective Starfleet careers, as they set out to stop a rogue Romulan ship from destroying the planet Vulcan. Most of the new cast takes their own interpretation on the roles, with the exception of Karl Urban who steals every scene he is in with a dead-on portrayal of Deforest Kelly's Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy.
The other six lead characters tend to be hit and miss as they attempt to settle into these iconic roles. Chris Pine shows enough untamed energy to make his Kirk work, and has a more obvious sense of humor than that which Shatner displayed. Zachary Quinto may need another film or two to figure out how he wants to play Spock, as the half Human/half Vulcan complexities may have been a bit out of his range. The experienced comedic actor Simon Pegg makes some very strong character choices as Scotty, but it will remain to be seen if the comedic portrayal of the chief engineer will be as endearing in future endeavors.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Nice to see a balanced perspective amidst the gushing lovefest
2 - Trekie
Betrayed.
Enjoyed the movie while watching it- especially the clever bits of how the characters first met- but woke up the morning after feeling betrayed. Wow. They just revamped the entire ST timeline, anything's game from the early timeline forward. What a great franchise opp. Gee, thanks JJAbrams for figuring out a way to make $ off the new version. Wonder how Gene would feel.
3 - Social Commentary
I just saw Star Trek this past weekend, and thought they did a really good job of making it appealing to a broad audience. Your article was a good read, thanks.