My husband and I are big Star Trek fans. No not the kind that dresses up and speaks Klingon, though we did go to Quarks bar a few years ago in Vegas. Anyways we’ve been stoked for the new Star Trek movie directed by J.J. Abrams, entitled “Into the Darkness”.
When the first movie was announced back in 2009, like many Star Trek fans, I was skeptical of how a reboot of this beloved series that sci-fi fans know all too well, would be portrayed and received. However, I was happily surprised that it worked well, mainly because of the story. The story was ingenious, because, you can’t recreate Captain James T. Kirk, he will always be the way that actor William Shatner played him, and the same goes for Leonard Nimoy as Spock and all the other actors from the original 1960’s series. Yet, what if they weren’t the same, not exactly the same characters we remember. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman ingeniously used time travel as a plot device. Where all the events in Star Trek history as we know have been altered because a villain in the future has come to the past, causing mayhem which ultimately changes the timeline of the characters. The pivotal events still occur, for example, Kirk still attends Starfleet and ends up on the Enterprise with the other members of our beloved crew. However, the behaviors of the crew differ slightly because of certain past experience that has now taken place, due to the change in the timeline. Therefore we as an audience accept that Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are in fact Kirk and Spock, even if they aren’t exactly like we remember them to be, their new actions are justified.
Spock (Quinto) and Kirk (Pine)
In this latest installment to the new reboot series, the story once again changes the behaviors of the characters and what we know to have happened. This still works because, we know from the first movie that these are not exactly the same people, because of their past, so they will react differently. In fact, this is played up by having the characters sort of reverse roles from what the audience was prepared for them to do. I especially like the line near the end when Spock and Kirk tell each other that they did what they did because “I knew it’s what you would have done”, quite humorous and fitting by the end of the movie.
Now, of course, I don’t want to give away the movie, but let’s just say if you really want to enjoy the bits of hidden humor like that line of dialog I mentioned, you really must first watch the 1982 “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”. Though I’ve seen this movie before, just out of sheer chance me and my hubby just watched it a week or so before going to see the new movie in theaters. We were looking for something to watch on Netflix and thought this would get us psyched for the new movie. Having watched it before hand, it was fresh on our mind, so we actually foresaw some of what was to unfold in the new movie.
1982 Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
In this new film Pine and Quinto do a good job, as well as Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the bad guy. Again I don’t want to give things away, though I do think Cumberbatch, is a good actor and does well on the series “Sherlock”, he just didn’t pull off the I’m in love with myself attitude that the former actor (who played this character) portrayed in the original storyline. Don’t get me wrong he does give off an I’m better than you feel, but I don’t see him breaking out into a rendition of “I’m too sexy” as would be the case for the original villain (whose name I’ll leave out for those who have not seen the movie yet).
Cumberbatch as our villain
Over all the movie I believe will satisfy Star Trek fans, though I don’t care for Zoe Saldana acting, she doesn’t seem as competent as Nichelle Nichols was at playing Uhura. Also, what’s up with Abrams and lens flares? I mean seriously is there really that much chrome on the bridge of the Enterprise to cause that many lens flares? But other than that I enjoyed the movie.