Review for Star Trek (2009)

Introduction

The next in my series of quickie double dip reviews is the Star Trek 2009 reboot, a film which I naturally had to upgrade once I’d seen its sequel in High Definition. Say what you will about the content, but when J.J. Abrams decided to take Star Trek in a distinctly Star Wars direction, he ensured that aurally and visually, this film would really re-conceptualise Star Trek for the big screen alone, completely divorcing it from its small screen roots, the first time that elements of the television franchise, sets, designs, and special effects, were missing from the big screen version since Star Trek IV. A summer blockbuster ride like this is built for big screens and HD.

A giant Romulan Death Star (Mining Vessel) from the 24th Century arrives in the past, its commander Nero looking for Ambassador Spock and a whole heap of revenge. What he finds is the USS Kelvin, a Federation starship under the command of Captain Robau, with one George Kirk at the helm, and a very pregnant Winona Kirk onboard as well. In the battle that ensues, the ship is destroyed when Kirk sacrifices it against the Romulan ship, buying time for the crew, his wife and his newborn son to escape. Without the influence of a father, James Tiberius Kirk grows up to be a tearaway rebel, drinking his life away in Iowa, until a barroom brawl results in an encounter with Starfleet Captain Christopher Pike, and a challenge to improve his life and live up to his father's example. At the same time on Vulcan, a young hybrid boy named Spock grows up suffering the torment of his peers, and his elders' disapproval of his human heritage, to eschew a path on Vulcan and join Starfleet. In another universe, they would have been friends, but Kirk and Spock's first encounter at the Academy is less than cordial. Their confrontation is interrupted though when a distress call comes in from Vulcan, and with the majority of the fleet engaged elsewhere, all available Starfleet cadets are ordered onto starships to head off for a rescue effort.


This is no simple distress call though. For the same vortex that brought Nero into the past has now finally disgorged his target, 25 years later. Nero's revenge is finally at hand, and it is the Romulan ship that is now attacking Vulcan. Only Kirk has recognised the same pattern of events that preceded the Kelvin's destruction, but he's restricted to the Academy, on report. He'll have to stow away on Starfleet's newest flagship if he can make a difference. He'll have to sneak aboard the USS Enterprise.

Since my opinion of the film has changed little since I last saw it, here’s a link to the review of the DVD.

Picture

Star Trek gets a 2.40:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p, and it is impeccable, high definition lens flare notwithstanding. Seriously, it’s clear and sharp throughout, with strong consistent colours, detail levels are excellent, contrast is great, and the epic effects sequences come across with the intended impact. The DVD was good, the Blu-ray blows it out of the water.

Sound

It’s the same deal with the audio. You have the choice between Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround French, Italian, Spanish, and German, with an English audio descriptive track, and subtitles in those languages and more. It’s a great audio experience, bringing across the film’s action and effects sequences thunderously, making great use of the surrounds, epic, vibrant and wholly immersive. The music score too is impressive, really driving the action well, but through this, the dialogue remains clear, and I was picking up bits of background dialogue that I missed wholly on the DVD.

Extras

The disappointment is here, with the single disc Blu-ray failing to gather even those extra features that were on the single disc DVD. All you get is an animated menu, and
you'll find the audio commentary from J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and Roberto Orci, in the extras menu and the set-up menu. It’s subtitled in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish should you need them.

If you do want the extra features for Star Trek, you’ll want the 2-disc Blu-ray edition, which was wholly limited, is now hard to find, and is ridiculously overpriced. That’s one DVD that I can’t throw away!

Conclusion

Star Trek’s 2009 incarnation is still a film that I hate to love. I shouldn’t like this. It’s one of those crass, by the book, identikit summer blockbusters that seems to be designed by committee, micro-metered to give an audience the exact roller-coaster thrill ride they pay their money for, without really having anything approaching a message, making no attempt to challenge the grey matter, or to have any lasting impact beyond its two hour runtime. It’s not what I originally loved Star Trek for. The story is dumb beyond belief, and appears to get dumber each time I watch it.


But... Star Trek 2009 is fun, and fun in a way that the Next Generation movies forgot how to be, and what it gets wrong with the story, it gets wholly right with the characters, creating enough that’s new with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the others that makes them stand separately from the original cast, but channelling enough of those characters, especially in terms of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, for the film to feel somewhat faithful of what had come before, honouring the Trek of the past, while creating the Trek of the future.


And when it comes down to it, I know intellectually I’d much rather watch the original cast movies, especially the Genesis trilogy, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they won’t be as much fun as this reboot. I’ll get to find out soon, as I’ve double dipped those as well. Star Trek 2009 is fresh, original and exciting, even if it is daft as a brush. And at least it’s better than its sequel, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of the Wrath of Khan, which got wrapped up in the original series mythology that it was trying to get away from in the first place, and failed really to satisfy in either respect, winding up being as daft as two brushes.