Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek (2009)

Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming. Hollywood have finally taken something old, turned it into something new and – somehow – made it utterly freaking awesome at the same time. Star Trek has to be the single best “reboot” (I bloody hate that phrase) of any franchise so far. By a country mile. And then some.

Plot in a nutshell: Imagine a kind of Star Trek: Origins with some lovely tweaks and you’re there. If you don’t know the history of Star Trek, find a spotty person with no friends at a convention. They’ll be happy enough to spend the rest of your life explaining it to you.

What makes it so good? Well, pretty much everything. The story’s well done. The characters are as familiar as they could be… and yet subtly changed just enough so they don’t appear their old, dated selves. The cast are superb – Karl Urban could be DeForest Kelly and Zachary Quinto is the perfect Spock. The dialogue’s awesome – there’s a “phasers to stun”, a couple of “live long and prosper“s and a “dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a physicist!” Sadly there’s a lack of “She cannatak it” from Scotty, but we’ll forgive them that one. It comes close.

Above all, it’s damn entertaining. The humour level is spot on and the effects are bang up to date without being the focus of the film. What I think I liked most, though, is that we already know the characters. What we’re seeing is the formation of a team that most over-30s have a great knowledge of. Finally we’re seeing exactly how they came together – or one version of it. The plot allows the creative team and the scriptwriters to tinker with previous versions, but they’ve done so subtly.

I will be amazed if they can follow this with a sequel even half as good. I know I’ve thrown a lot of hyperbole your way, but believe me I was grinning like a loon after the first 15 minutes (the opening sequence isn’t exactly humourous). I didn’t even punch crap out of the two idiots next to me who kept repeating bits of the dialogue and pointing out the characters to each other. I must have been immersed.

See it. If you’re a sci-fi fan or Trekker/Trekkie then please just go if you’ve not already got a ticket. If you’re not a fan, go see it anyway. If this doesn’t convert you then nothing will.

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