Entertainment Geekly’s ‘Star Trek’ series examines the frantic reboot.
This week: The faster and more intense reboot.
Last week:The vampire movie.
Credit: Paramount Pictures
Next week: Khan, again.
Who is the J.J. Abrams character inTrek 09?
Maybe thats a dumb question.
After all, no important contemporary director has done more to torpedo basic ideas about authorship than J.J. Abrams.
His filmography thus far comprises a threequel, an elevenquel, a twelvequel, and a sevenquel.
(Super 8looks more likeE.T.thanStar Treklooks likeStar Trek.)
Abrams can create, but he prefers to curate.
His two greatest commercial successes are refined variations of franchises gone wrong.
(ASIDE:Abrams reputation as a franchise fixer actually begins withMission: Impossible 3.
He madeTrek 09completely different from any otherStar Trekmovie; he madeForce Awakensa greatest-hits compilation of the original trilogy.
Should we start with Kirk, then?
Is he our onscreen Abrams?
Gene Roddenberrys dad was a policeman, and Roddenberry himself was an airman in World War II.
Does this mean thatStar Trekis Abrams working out his daddy issues?
ThroughoutTrek 09, were constantly reminded of the great heroism of George Kirk.
James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man.
He went on to captain the USS Enterprise, but that was another life.
A LIFE I WILL DEPRIVE YOU OF!
JUST LIKE I DID YOUR FATHER!
Old Spock tells Young Kirk about the George Kirk he knew: A good father, an inspiration.
Can this new Kirk live up to that old Kirk?
And can this newStar Treklive up to the oldStar Trek?
This Kirk is someone always on the move.
He is born in battle, on a spaceship fleeing destruction.
Next, hes stealing an automobile and playing Beastie Boys on the stereo.
You might say that this Kirk is more relatable.
And this Kirk is always on the run.
He races through theEnterprise, suffering from multiple allergic reactions, and pushes his way onto the bridge.
Then hes beamedbackto theEnterprise, round and round we go.
As a filmmaker, Abrams is equally restless.
His camera doesnt move; itcareens.
There are individual shots ofTrek 09that are so aggressively overlit that the film practically throttles you.
And there are individual shots so needlessly kinetic that their melodrama becomes a little joke.
Those films are occasionally beautiful and frequently unwatchable.
Individual shots are exciting; whole sequences are often boring.
Theres a shot, early in the film, when Spock is facing a council of his elders.
This is a common visual strategy throughoutTrek 09.
It is so silly, and meaningless, and I kind of love it.
The problem is that it fades quickly; sometimes it cant even last a whole scene.
Trek 09wasnt just made by Abrams, of course.
(Theres a reference to Scott freaking Bakula!)
I remember enjoying the film when I saw it in theaters seven years ago.
But the film decisively promoted Abrams into the ranks of blockbuster director.
Its not an origin story; its a pre-production saga.
The characters slowly align into their usual places.
Everything changes, and yet oddly nothing changes at all.
But the films too kinetic to take that kind of bummer seriously.
And so maybe this Kirk isnt the Abrams, after all.
With that in mind, take a closer look at one of the strangest moments inTrek 09.
Kirk has just crashlanded on Hoth, basically, and run into Old Spock.
Scotty, it turns out, has a big theory.
Old Spock proves this to Scotty by handing him the transwarp theory.
Pause to briefly imagine this in vaguely real-ish terms.
Imagine that, Scotty says, looking at the greatest idea he was ever supposed to have.
It never occurred to me to think of space as the thing that was moving.
Now, I have no goddamn idea what that means.
of research, and mistakes.
Maybe its not a spoiler; maybe this is an existential cheat code.
Maybethatsthe resonance weve been looking for.
movies out of21 Jump Streetbefore putting Batman and Gandalf and freaking Lando Calrissian in theirLego Movie.
I like this ship!
Scott says once hes on theEnterprise, a fanboy who immediately gets handed control of the engine room.
It is andTrek 09offers the tantalizing idea that headstart-auteurism can lead to greater ambitions.
But theTrekfilms give Uhura more to do in the worst way.
As a grown-up, he orders Jack Daniels Tennessee WhiskeyTM; Uhura prefers BudweiserTM.
Given more power, he banished products fromInto Darkness; well see what happens withBeyond.
Now, theres nothing wrong with shameless capitalism.
Never mind that the product placement secretly constitutes the films greatest crime againstTrekcontinuity.
This strikes me as the single most cynical and probably accurate prediction about our future thatStar Trekhas ever made.
2.The villain pilots a giant Romulan ship, much bigger than theEnterprise, jet-black and vaguely octopus-like.
5.The aforementioned Giant Romulan Ship carries a devastating weapon with the ability to blow up planets.
(Vintage Abrams: He makes the big final climax ofNemesisinto the first scene ofTrek 09.)
THE WHOLE MOVIE IN A NUTSHELL
