‘Star Trek’ beams up old, new fans

“Star Trek” -- 4 out of 5 stars for Sci-Fi

Ty Hampton
Critic’s Corner

With a new young cast, a revamped U.S.S. Enterprise, and fresh bag of tricks in the form of special effects, “Star Trek” is truly a larger than life adventure.

I’m no trekkie, only having seen two of the 1990’s Star Trek films in my day, but as a newcomer to the series I found this prequel to be fun, engaging, and an all-around enjoyable movie experience to kick off the summer movie season.

The film begins with a bang as we are shown the fate of Captain James T. Kirk’s father as a hero who saved the lives of others while he went down with his ship. Fast-forward 20 years and Jim Kirk (Chris Pine) is all grown up as a talented, boisterous, and rebellious enrollee in Starfleet on the path to fulfilling his destiny.

Along the way he clashes with rising rival Spock (Zachary Quinto), as we are introduced to the Enterprise and the clan of quirky characters who inhabit this legendary interstellar spaceship. The ship responds to a distress call from Spock’s home of Vulcan to find the fate of his planet and the universe hanging in the balance.

First of all, Captain Kirk is a great legendary character. The John Wayne of science- fiction. Considering that Chris Pine has no lead roles in his young movie or TV career, the chap did one heck of a job portraying the man that Bill Shatner defined so well. Pine even has some of the qualities of Shatner including the same piercing blue-eyed gleam as he faces doom-filled decisions atop his captain’s chair.

This performance matched with the plot’s focus on the rivalry between Kirk and Spock was really a winning combo as TV star Zach Quinto of “Heroes” and “24” fame captured the intensity and subtle vulnerability of the vulcan/human half-breed stuck between worlds.

Karl Urban, John Cho, Simon Pegg, and Anton Yelchin also served well as classic Trek characters Dr. McCoy, Sulu, Scotty, and Chekov. Haven’t heard of any of those names before? I’m not surprised. In fact the biggest name actor in the film is Eric Bana who gives a near perfect portrayal of the villain Nero.

The only other recognizable actor for most would be the man behind the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, who appears in this one as future Spock.

Which reminds me I forgot to include that black holes and time travel are thrown into the mix in this film almost as haphazardly as they were in this season of “Lost.”The connection you ask?

J.J. Abrams was a co-creator of Lost and a writer for a bulk of the episodes. Still a co-producer of Lost, it seems a little ironic that a show that has taken a serious topsy-turvy time travel spin lately has some of the same elements as his second major movie directing gig (Abrams directed “Cloverfield” in 2008).

Plus, the plot seemed to be very on the edge of your seat action-driven, never stalling throughout the two-hour film – a trait that reminded me of when I viewed “Transformers” two years ago. To no surprise of mine I found out that the writing team for this movie is the exact same two guys who wrote screenplays for “Transformers” and “Transformers: Rise of the Fallen” (due out in June).

Not being a Star Trek diehard like the legions of fans out there, I phoned my trekkie friend after the movie Sunday to see what he thought of it. He had already seen the film twice over the weekend and was really happy over the way it was made regardless of its flashier, sexier polish.

And that’s one thing I love about Star Trek is that it’s about the fans. I remember looking around the packed theater at the matinee I attended and seeing a family of four, a row of elementary-aged kids, a row of teenagers, a couple in their 50s, a couple in their 20s … my point is Star Trek appeals to some part in just about everyone, no matter how old.

Then when the film was over, it received actually applause from the audience – the first time I’d seen that in a while. Oh for the love of trekkies.

There are very few perfect sci-fi films, and this movie wasn’t quite one of them, but it was fairly close and a sincere joy to take in as someone who has never really been into Star Trek before. I give it 4 out of 5 stars for the sci-fi genre.

“Star Trek” is PG-13 for violence, sci-fi action, and brief sexual content (it’s nothing too racy though, bring the kids). The film is showing at 4:15, 7, and 9:30 p.m. nightly at the Showboat 2 in Polson.