Star Trek (2009)

STAR TREK's two hours fly by, and unlike most complex science fiction stories, the audience here is always in-the-know, whether you came to the film as a long-time follower of the series and films or this was your first Trek experience.

I am somewhere in the middle: not a Trekkie, but someone who has seen most of the films and has a basic sense of historic plotlines and relationships. My memory does not have enough of the finer details of the story stored, however, and I was concerned that watching a reboot of the story, as director J.J. Abrams employs here, would be confusing to me.

My worries were unfounded. STAR TREK is so cleverly-written that an amateur can follow it and an expert can agree with it. Even more clever is the casting; every significant character is instantly identifyable here. With those worries out of the way, one can simply sit back (if you're able) and enjoy a summer popcorn flick the way it was meant to be done.

George Kirk, a brave Federation captain, sacrifices himself to save hundreds of members aboard the ship that was just placed in his control, including his wife, in labor with their son. This son, James, grows up in Iowa and is a hell-raiser, but is eventually convinced to attend the Starfleet academy and fulfill the promise shown by his father. Jim is a cocky ladies' man and struggles in the academy because he dislikes rules and authority figures. His strongest dislike is for Spock, a young lieutenant in the Starfleet and outcast among his Vulcan people for having a human mother.

The new Kirk and Spock are played by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Pine is an inspired choice, with the gravitas for the role and the lightness for its humor. Quinto, by comparison, seems like the only logical choice (pardon the Trek joke), as he's been drawing physical comparisons to Leonard Nimoy since he began his work on NBC's "Heroes." Both are excellent here.

When an emergency on Vulcan causes the Starfleet to christen its new USS Enterprise, Spock takes off for space joined by other familiars like Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Bones (Karl Urban). The recently-punished Kirk finds a way onboard as well, though he is eventually discovered and cast off the ship, picking up Scotty (Simon Pegg) along the way and bumping into...Spock? It's well-known by now that Leonard Nimoy appears in this STAR TREK, too. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film yet, but the way Abrams works him in is quite clever, and not as difficult to follow as one might expect.

The special effects and production values of STAR TREK are as good as you'd expect them to be, and maybe it's due to Abrams' ability to build on such a known pop culture myth that this film flies by twice as fast as James Cameron's "Avatar." Perhaps, at least subconciously, we all walk into this one knowing more than we think we know. This is assisted by a script that includes one clear mission for the crew that is motivated and justified, and plenty of minor winks and nods to appease longtime fans. Without those references, STAR TREK might feel like "Star Trek for Dummies," but it doesn't. And yet this film appealed to my 8-year old daughter as much as it did to me. She sat down and watched the entire film and loved it, too.

For big budget entertainment, I can't complain about STAR TREK. It's the kind of film I would buy on DVD and pull out repeatedly to enjoy. For what it set out to do, I think it did so successfully. It was fast-paced, and it was fun.

3.5 out of 4