The last few years have seen a number of once-popular film or television franchises “rebooted” for the big screen. Batman, The Incredible Hulk, the James Bond films, Friday The 13th, and other successful series of days gone by have been reconceived and relaunched. These and other formerly lucrative properties are being recycled for the benefit of a new generation by the studios in the hopes of tapping into their profit-making potential. Along with everything else, the continual return to “used” (and re-used!) material demonstrates Hollywood’s remarkable paucity of imagination and inventiveness. The 11th film in the “Star Trek” series, simply entitled Star Trek, joins the fold by returning to the origins of Star Trek’s pop-culture mythology and showing viewers how the original “Starship Enterprise” crew of Capt. James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, “Bones” McCoy and all the others from the television show (1966-69) first met.
The story concerns the early lives of the fledgling crew. A young Spock is put through rigorous tests of mental ability on planet Vulcan, while his fellow pupils treat him as an outsider because he is half human. On Earth, a young James Kirk steals a car and goes joyriding, nearly killing himself in the process.
The two eventually meet and clash at Starfleet Academy where Spock (Zachary Quinto) is an instructor and Kirk (Chris Pine) a brilliant but irresponsible student. Kirk’s daring and Spock’s careful calculating are, predictably, contrasted, and the personality clash between the pair becomes the central theme of the film. Just as predictably, Kirk and Spock will soon discover they need each other and are both “incomplete” without the other.
When a time-traveling Romulan vessel from the future arrives in Federation space intent on destroying Spock’s home planet of Vulcan along with Earth, Spock, Kirk and the untested crew of the starship Enterprise must pull together to stop them.
As with so many blockbusters of this kind, the majority of the creative powers at work have been focused on the special effects. Spaceships twist and turn, avoiding debris and the “phaser” blasts of their enemies. One recalls an alarming number of objects exploding. The screen is constantly filled with action, often too much of it to take in. At times this is suspenseful or exciting, too often it is simply incomprehensible.
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