I spent about an hour last night working up a review/write up about Abrams and his recent work with Star Trek, and then WordPress totally lost the entire thing while I was trying to add some photos. Very disappointing, although I suspect many of you are glad I didn’t ramble incoherently while breaking down the genius of the man who gave us Felicity. I’m recreating, and rambling again… Go check out the movie Star Trek, it’s worth your time.
As someone with no connection to the Star Trek franchise, and as someone who can honestly say they’ve never sat through an episode of the many different shows, nor seen a single second of any of the movies, I was still excited for one major reason to see the reincarnation of the Sci-Fi dork franchise.
J.J. Abrams.
Yes the man who brought us Felicity and What About Brian is the best summer action director on the planet. While Alias and Lost never really got me hooked, Abrams’ ability to make blockbuster action movies with an unrivaled intelligence, craft, and enjoyment are what had me very read to finally get on board the USS Enterprise.
What makes Abrams so incredibly talented (and thus, so incredibly rich) is his ability to create something unique and exciting in a genre that seems to so often repeat itself. If it weren’t for the self-induced PR bludgeoning by Tom Cruise, many people would recognize Abrams’ Mission: Impossible 3 as one of the best summer action movies of the last 10 years. From the very first minutes of the film, we were sucked in by Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as he squared off with Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian, as he fought to save the life of girl and find the “rabbit’s foot.” With Cloverfield, Abrams’ delivered a monster movie in an entirely unique way, making the handheld camera we experienced the movie through not feel like a gimmick, but an incredibly well-layed story that actually had me invested in a monster movie.
Star Trek works because Abrams and his writers of choice, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, created a world that we understood. The film grabs you from the start not because of the sci-fi wizardry, but because a young captain engaged in battle with a superior enemy has to make a decision to sacrifice himself to save others — in this case made harder because the others include his young wife who is in labor with their first child. That child is James Tiberious Kirk.
Abrams and Co. do an excellent job introducing us to the young Kirk and Spock, and do enough to teach the newcomers to the franchise about the worlds in which they live. Spock’s childhood on the planet Vulcan doesn’t seem to be in a far off place, it’s a scenario we understand. Kirk’s lost lot in life is easy to stomach (albeit cliched), yet his decision to join Starfleet feels like something he’s destined to do.
There are certainly holes in the plot, which like many Sci-Fi and Star Trek movies deals with time travel, black holes, warp speed, and a whole lot of other cool stuff. But for the most part, it doesn’t matter, because the goal of the film was to restart a franchise that had run itself into the ground with the ten previous movies and hundreds of television episodes. That Abrams could take a cast of virtual no names and find two strong leading men in Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto makes his work even more impressive. While hard core Trekkies might feel like they got a dumbed down version of the franchise they loved, studios don’t spend $150 million to make cult films.
Abrams succeeded as Christopher Nolan did with Batman Begins, bravely taking a beloved franchise in a different direction, and bringing millions of new fans along with him.
Sorry, Trekkies.
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’
Filed under: Movies Tagged: | Alex Kurtzman, J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Star Trek
