DVD/Blu-ray Pick for the Week of November 17th: Star Trek

J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek”, due on DVD and blu-ray disc November 17th from Paramount Home Video, begins with a huge bang, a knockout prologue that chronicles the birth of James T Kirk, and the death of his father, a Starship Captain (for twelve minutes), all during a surprise attack by a renegade Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana). Flash forward a quarter of a century to Iowa, where we find Kirk (played as an adult by Chris Pine) has grown up to be a cocky, devil-may-care genius with a pretty serious chip on his shoulder. Following a bar fight he has with a quartet of Starfleet cadets one night; he meets a Starfleet Captain named Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who suggests that Kirk join Starfleet and try to do a better job than his pop did on the day he was born.

Kirk takes Pike up on his challenge and joins the Academy. It is here where Kirk begins to encounter the usual series suspects, including a brash doctor named Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban), a sexy linguistics officer named Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and a half-Vulcan, half-human named Spock (Zachary Quinto), a fellow cadet who believes that Kirk cheated on a test that he created to be a no-win scenario. As Kirk finds himself facing suspension from the Academy for his so-called ‘cheating’, a distress call is received from Spock’s home planet of Vulcan. After sneaking on board the Enterprise, Kirk soon realizes that the distress call is an actual trap, with a situation quite similar to the one that cost his father his life decades ago.

It was a pretty big risk: giving a complete overhaul to a franchise as beloved as Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek”. Not only did the risk lie in keeping long term fans happy with the new changes and faces, but also in the fact that Paramount poured at least $150 million into the production (Trek films usually are done on the cheap). Originally scheduled for Christmas 2008, the film was postponed to May of 2009 to give director J.J. Abrams more time to fine tune the film. Usually, when a film gets delayed for this long, a certain stench begins to fill the air. Considering how awful 1998’s “Star Trek: Insurrection” and 2002’s “Star Trek: Nemesis” were, things were certainly looking iffy (at best) for the new film.

Fortunately, all the fears and doubts proved to be for naught. In the realm of “Star Trek” fandom, a friend of mine best summed up my level of ‘fandom’: I’m a fan when it’s good. This applies to the episodes I have seen from the original television series and, with the exception of the dire “Star Trek V”, the half-dozen film entries spanning 1979 to 1991 (yes, that includes the first one).

For a TV/theatrical episode of “Star Trek” to succeed, all it had to do was have a good story to tell, give the characters some interesting interaction and throw in the occasional kick-ass action sequence. The ‘Original Crew’ film series had this formula down pretty well, with 1982’s “The Wrath of Khan” and 1991’s “The Undiscovered Country” being the standouts. Unfortunately, the quartet of ‘Next Generation’ that spanned from 1993 to 2002 sadly had little, if any, of this winning formula (1996’s “First Contact” is the sole exception).

For this next generation of “Trek”, the winning formula has returned in a big, big way. Using Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s screenplay as his foundation, Abrams presents a new, vibrant and more mainstream-accessible version of “Star Trek” without alienating the legions of long-standing fans. With his last film, 2006’s “Mission: Impossible III”, Abrams tried to balance human drama with high-tech action and produced mixed results. Mediocre scripts will do that.

With “Star Trek”, however, he perfectly nails that balance. With the assist of great visual effects and a dynamic music score by Michael Giacchino, the action sequences are among the best in the series, professionally executed without ever overshadowing the story or characters. The quality level of character development and interaction that made the original series such a standout makes a welcome return here, giving the film an emotional depth not seen in this franchise in quite some time.

Breathing new life into a 43-year old franchise is difficult enough. Finding an acceptable group of actors to fill the shoes of iconic characters played by actors so identifiable in these roles is even more of a challenge. But once again, Abrams succeeds. Pine displays a nice mix of cockiness and arrogance to make for a fine Kirk. Qunito excels as Spock, whose internal conflict serves as the film’s emotional core; while Karl Urban is pitch-perfect as the abrasive McCoy. DeForrest Kelly would be proud. Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Checkov) and Zoe Saldana each do just fine in their supporting roles to help solidify this ensemble as the new ‘Magnificent Seven’ in outer space.

Among the other cast members, Eric Bana makes for a decent bad guy, even if his Nero isn’t quite in the same league as Ricardo Montalban’s Khan or Christopher Plummer’s Shakespeare-quoting Chang from “The Undiscovered Country”. Winona Ryder and Ben Cross are fine as Spock’s parents, while Bruce Greenwood gives his Commander Pike a nice combination of authority and father figure to the young crew. As for the sole returning member from the original series, it’s great to see Leonard Nimoy return as…well, you know who.

You don’t need to be able to tell the difference between a Klingon and a Tribble, quote episodes verbatim or dress up in a costume two sizes too small to enjoy the new “Star Trek”. All the new film requires you to do is sit back and have a good time. “Star Trek” is easily one of the year’s best entertainments, and one whose sequel can’t come fast enough. (PG-13, 127 minutes, Four stars out of four)