Star Trek (2009)

Who woulda thunk it? After the spectacular awfulness that was Nemesis, it seemed impossible for Star Trek to even recover, let alone rock our socks off, and yet JJ Abrams somehow managed it. Not only that, but he did it with that most risky of propositions; the reboot...

How to make everyone happy? You've got your die-hard Trekkies, your battle-hardened Trekkers, and the rest of the proles who either don't care, or (although the gods alone know how) don't even know what Star Trek is. The chances of pleasing even a small proportion of any one of these groups (especially the first two!) with a reboot of what is probably the most famous TV/film franchise of all time seemed pretty remote, but Abrams not only pulls it off, he literally blows the audience away.

In reality, credit should be spread around here - The writers made sure that the action never let up, the actors (all of 'em) nailed their characters, and the director managed the circus. Having a healthy (i.e. LARGE) budget helped, but there have been plenty of high-budget movies that have been absolute duds in the wrong hands.

The film never really lets up once its started; we are thrown from one situation to the next with just enough of a breather, and there is just the right balance of pathos and humour to keep us involved with the characters and their development. Oh, and the bad guy is awesome; Eric Bana as Nero is my favourite Star Trek baddie since Khan... Completely insane, and thoroughly entertaining. You can tell he was having great fun just being wicked!

More than anything else, though, it's the actors that pull this together and make it the pleasure that it is. It was an impossible task; they not only had to play their characters, they had to somehow remind us of the actors who previously played the same characters, without leaving us preferring the originals. How does anyone manage this? It's like Chris Pine is channelling William Shatner, while still managing to bring his own feel to Kirk, and Zachary Quinto IS Spock. It was even more impressive in Zachary's case, because he had to play up against the "real" Spock; his older alter-ego, Leonard Nimoy. Zoe Saldana (as Uhura) was beautiful, Simon Pegg (Scotty) was hysterical, Karl Urban (Bones) was spot on, and Anton Yelchin (Chekov) can actually act!

Perhaps the smartest move was in creating an alternate time-line. That way, when events occur (particularly in the inevitable - and eagerly anticipated - sequels) that didn't previously occur in Star Trek "cannon", they can be excused as being allowable. If they had simply gone back in time and shown Kirk and Spock growing up and becoming Star Fleet officers, they would have had to have stuck to the original timeline. Very restrictive. As it is, they can do just about anything and, so long as they keep the overall "feel" of the Star Trek universe (which was where, I feel, the last two Next-Gen Star Trek movies failed), everyone will be happy.

If you haven't watched this reboot yet, for whatever reason, pull your finger out - It really is awesome fun - A roller-coaster ride with great effects, humour, character, and non-stop action.