Beam My Ass Up!
'Plot hole approaching, Captain.'
Finally got to see Star Trek this weekend. Finally. This was the film I was way into reviewing as I’m a huge fan of red worm monsters that look how I would feel on a bad LSD trip.
Okay, not really. Not so much.
Thinking back to my time spent watching the original in syndication, The Next Generation with Professor Xavier and the Reading Rainbow guy, Deep Space Nine Principal Snyder from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Voyager, I feel my Trek acumen was pretty sound.
Premise!
The premise of the film involves the concept of alternate realities, that destiny and fate are irrelevant if a foreign body is introduced to the past’s time stream that alters the way history plays out, branching off like the top of a redwood. A moment in time altering everything, in this case, the appearance of a Romulan ship causing the early demise of James T. Kirk’s father George.
Spoilers!
Show ▼
The film opens with the Federation starship USS Kelvin investigating a “lightning storm” in space. It turns out to be a black hole, and the Narada, a Romulan mining vessel, emerges from it and attacks. The Kelvin’s captain, Richard Robau (Faran Tahir) is captured and killed by the Romulan captain Nero (Eric Bana). First officer George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) takes command and sacrifices himself and the Kelvin by ramming it into the Romulan ship in order to allow the rest of the crew to escape. During the escape, George’s wife Winona (Jennifer Morrison) gives birth to a son: James Tiberius Kirk.
About 22 years later, Kirk (Chris Pine) grows into an intelligent but reckless young man. He meets Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) in a bar in Iowa, where Pike convices Kirk to enlist in Starfleet Academy and follow in his father’s footsteps. During his eventful education on Earth, he is suspended for cheating on the Kobayashi Maru designed by the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock (Zachary Quinto). Despite this, Kirk is smuggled onboard the USS Enterprise by his friend, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban), as it is sent on its first mission to investigate a distress signal originating from the planet Vulcan; Captain Pike commands the ship, with Spock as his first officer, and Uhura is also assigned to the ship. En-route, Kirk realizes that the situation is similar to the one 25 years ago when his father died and, with the help of Uhura and McCoy, manages to convince Pike and Spock that the Enterprise is heading into a trap. When the Enterprise arrives, they find the rest of the Starfleet ships destroyed and Nero’s ship, the Narada, using a drilling apparatus to tunnel to the planet’s core. After promoting Spock to captain and Kirk to first officer, Pike surrenders to Nero, giving Kirk and Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) a chance to destroy the drill. Nevertheless, Nero destroys Vulcan with a small amount of “red matter” dropped into the planet’s core, creating a black hole that consumes the planet from within. Six billion of the Vulcan people die, including Spock’s human mother, Amanda (Winona Ryder).
Nero puts the Narada on a course for Earth with the intention of destroying it. Kirk wants to follow Nero immediately, but Spock insists that the Enterprise should regroup with the fleet as per their orders. Spock has Kirk forcibly removed from the Enterprise and stranded on the nearby ice planet Delta Vega, only for him to be rescued by an aging Vulcan who reveals himself to be Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy). This elderly Spock explains that, 120 years in the future, he tried to save the Romulan planet from being destroyed by a nearby supernova, using the red matter in his ship to create a black hole that would neutralise the threat. Though Spock did not complete his mission in time to save Romulus — resulting in Nero’s vow to take revenge on Spock and the Federation — he stopped the supernova, and the resulting black hole transported Spock’s ship and the Narada into the past. Spock takes Kirk to a nearby Starfleet outpost and introduces him to Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg), a master engineer and pioneer of transporter technology. Scott and Kirk are transported back to the Enterprise and, taking Ambassador Spock’s advice, Kirk goads the younger Spock into attacking him and demonstrating that he is “emotionally compromised.” As a result, Spock relieves himself of command. Because Kirk is the next-highest ranking officer, he becomes the new captain of the Enterprise.
Captain Kirk takes the Enterprise to Earth, intending to stop the Narada on his own. Spock, Scott and math-whiz Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) figure out a way to lie in wait for the Narada and beam aboard, allowing Kirk and Spock to stage a surprise attack. While Spock steals Ambassador Spock’s captured ship and lures the Narada away from Earth, Kirk rescues Pike. With the assistance of the Enterprise, Spock then rams Ambassador Spock’s ship into the Narada, detonating the red matter and creating a black hole that, aided by a full barrage of the Enterprise’s weaponry, destroys the Narada completely. Kirk, Spock and Pike are rescued by the Enterprise via transporter, which is in turn saved from being pulled into the black hole by Scott. Back on Earth, Kirk is commended, promoted to captain and given permanent command of the Enterprise from Pike, now a Fleet Admiral. Ambassador Spock visits his younger self and explains that he helped Kirk directly because he wanted to ensure that the young Spock and Kirk would come to an understanding of each other and become friends. The younger Spock, convinced to stay with Starfleet, requests to be posted to the Enterprise as first officer and Kirk accepts. As the Enterprise warps away, the elder Spock recites the series’ motto: “Space… the Final Frontier, these are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Breakdown!
The main complaint about this film has been the plot holes. I’ve heard things from, “ Why does Spock ship Kirk off ship instead of throwing him into the brig?” to “How could Spock prime lock onto the Enterprise mid-warp when he doesn’t know where it is?”
All valid points.
But the one thing that is impressive about this film is how likable these characters are that you don’t have a moment to get caught up in the plot holes. You get totally lost in the film and the time just shoots by. It reminds me of The Dark Knight, littered with plot holes but acted out so admirably you don’t care.
Quinto did an excellent job as Spock, a worthy enough performance where at the end of the film it feels like Nimoy passes the crown to the once and future king. Classy.
'Crap. It's Shatner!'
Frak Shatner. That’s right, you heard me. All his crying and moaning, almost demanding that he had to be in this film cost the man some space cred. You are not bigger than Star Trek. Chris Pine brought forth a tougher (leaner), stronger (younger), and more entertaining Kirk that was needed to re-launch the franchise. From the story I watched, Old Kirk didn’t fit in. This was an ensemble piece that needed as little connection as possible to the old show so that it could take off in it’s own direction. This wasn’t his story and Nimoy was due.
Great ensemble. Cho, Pegg, Quinto, Pine, Urban, Saldana, and Yelchin worked amazingly well together.
Never wear red, eh Olson?
The Granada is playing it in town for the next week or so, I imagine. Check it out and pay whatever price, it’s worth it on the big screen and you’ll probably see me there.
Which is only added incentive if you’re female… and think I’m sexy 
Fascinating.
This movie was great. One of the better movies of the year so far. Nice review. I am neither female nor hot, but next week in La Grande I hope to see you none the less, in a pants on kind of way though.
Agreed, the movie was very good. Also, I can’t help but love a review that hides the bulk of itself within a spoiler block. Plot holes aside (and it’s very easy to both love and hate this movie for them, depending on how rabid a trekkie you are), my one gripe about this film is the over abundance of utterly funky lens reflections. Inside the ships, outside the ships, lighting on set, lighting two sets away on an entirely different movie… it didn’t matter. Well, I guess my gripe is the lighting in general. Folks with epilepsy should probably avoid this movie. Oh, and I also agree with the keeping of pants on Chuck.
I totally agree I got lost in the story and the characters and was just so thrilled to see that they actually pulled it off I really think Abrams is on to something here, he can totally make a great movie when it is something he really is grasping.
With all his time-warping in recent films, I half expected a short Shantner cameo as we panned from Kirk’s promotion to old Spock in the balcony.
Yeah, this show was like re-meeting old friends.