Amazingly enough the best movie to come out this past year is also available just in time for Christmas. That movie is STAR TREK. I know, some of you aren’t fans of the series but the fact of the matter is you don’t have to be to enjoy or be amazed at this film.
Forget the past, forget the original series or films. This movie takes us back to the beginning, back when James T. Kirk was just being born. Yes, the film opens with an attack on a Federation spaceship that will not survive. But those in the escape pods will thanks to the selfless sacrifice of Kirk’s father, listening in as his son is born while piloting the battered ship into the alien craft that’s attacking.
Fast forward several years to an anti-establishment young man who’s stolen his uncle’s prized sports car, an antique. Or the planet of Vulcan where a young Spock is being taunted by his fellow students for his half human, half Vulcan heritage. Both show early stages of these characters whose lives will cross as they age.
When he hits his late teens, Kirk (Chris Pine) is still a rebellious young man. Caught up in a bar fight with a group of cadets, he is rescued by Capt. Pike (Bruce Greenwood) who encourages him to join as a cadet. At first unsure, Kirk takes him up on the offer. As he boards the shuttlecraft that will take him to a waiting spaceship, he meets a troubled doctor for whose wife has just taken him leaving him nothing but his “bones”. Yes, it’s McCoy (Karl Urban).
A few years pass and the now legendary outmaneuvering of the test known as the Kobayashi Maru (okay, you do have to recall some things from the movie) takes place. Kirk’s integrity is called to question by the cadet who created the test, Spock (Zachary Quinto). But before a ruling can be handed down, an alert is raised and an imminent attack on the Federation is at hand. Finding a way to sneak onboard the Enterprise, Pike’s ship, Kirk and his fellow cadets face the same ship that caused his father’s death.
Only Kirk’s quick thinking saves the ship from a complete obliteration. As Capt. Pike shuttles across to the enemy Romulan vessel, a wary crew waits in response. It seems that the leader of the Romulans, Nero (Eric Bana), has a grudge against Spock even though Spock has no clue why. Romulans from the future can do that to a person.
Twists and turns in the plot pit Kirk and Spock against one another, gives us the reason why Nero is after Spock, shows us the planet Vulcan under attack and...well let’s just say you won’t find a snore inducing scene in this film.
It also re-introduces characters like Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and, early on, Uhura (Zoe Saldana). And it’s great to see these now famous characters come to life once more. But it’s not just their re-imagining that makes this special. It’s their newness instead.
One would think that the special effects of a movie of this scale would be incredible and of course they are. But the best thing is that they don’t overshadow all the rest. It’s not about the beams, the rays, the photon torpedoes that make this film click. It is the interaction between characters we’ve come to know and love before they even have the chance to know they are going to be lifelong friends.
And at the center of it is the story of heroism that one rarely finds in film these days. Too often we find misguided or bad boy heroes who are just as likely to kill or maim on a whim as the bad guy. Here we have a group of people who are attempting to make a better tomorrow.
And that was always the secret of Star Trek. We were presented with a bright and shining future filled with selfless heroes willing to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of mankind and not just their own selfish goals. We glimpsed a future that wasn’t the current popular phase of torn down buildings and roaming packs of scavengers. We were presented with a potential future of harmony, of possibility and of a bold new world, no a bold new universe, where anything is possible. And this film captures that essence from beginning to end.
When I finished watching this film something happened that I’ve never experiences before. I wanted to watch it again right then. And I’d already seen it in the theater. It is that good.
If someone doesn’t have this film on their Christmas list then it should be. And if they do, by all means get them the souped up version as opposed to the one disc movie only deal being offered. Fans will be in heaven and non-fans will become fans. And when the closing credits roll, you’ll be left wondering when the next one will come out.
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