Star Trek 2009 DVD

Star Trek 2009 3-disc Blu-ray DVD

Star Trek (2009) DVD Prelude

I've been waiting for the DVD release of the latest installment of Star Trek (2009) , the prequel to The Original Series (TOS) for a couple of months now. I'll be reviewing the actually DVD release when it hits the streets, which Amazon shows as November 17th, but it's currently available for pre-order. I'm looking forward to it, since the bonus DVDs will have deleted scenes, writer and director commentary, and an account of the film's production design. The design commentary should be fascinating, since one of the most remarkable achievements of this Star Trek was its back-to-the-future blending of TOS' costuming and set design with more sophisticated approaches from the franchise's later films.

How well does director J.J. Abrams' Star Trek jibe with the rest of the series? How well does it fare as a film in its own right? Simply put, I was entertained in spite of myself. If you're not pedantic for consistency and continuity, you'll probably have a great time with it. Hardcore Trekkers will more likely to be ambivalent about the general audiences. One of the most astute reviews on Amazon was also the shortest: "Excellent film. Bad Star Trek."

Star Trek XI: The (Abridged) Plot

Most Star Trek films are plotted to fit their feature-length format, but Abrams' Star Trek feels even more episodically paced for TV than any of the TV shows. Star Trek may not unseat Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as the best Trek film, but it's unquestionably the most action-packed. It's the action that kept the audiences glued to their seats, notwithstanding the convoluted plot that would have otherwise be film's undoing.

The film starts with the USS Kelvin investigating a lightning storm in space that turns out to be a black hole. Emerging from the void, 129 years from the future, is the Romulan ship Narada, commanded by the vengeful Nero. Nero successfully attacks the Kelvin and demands that its captain be beamed aboard. Before transporting himself over, the captain transfers command to George Kirk, whose pregnant wife, Winona, is about to give birth to our beloved James T. Kirk. The erstwhile Captain Kirk orders his crew and wife to escape the Kelvin in shuttles and pods, while he manually pilots the ship into a destruct course with the Narada. Winona gives birth to her son in the last moments of her husband's life.

James Kirk grows into a gifted but directionless juvenile delinquent (initially played by Jimmy Bennett, finally by Chris Pine) in Iowa, with exploits ranging from joyriding his stepfather's antique Corvette to waging fistfights with Star Fleet cadets before Captain Christopher Pike intervenes. Pike tries to convince Kirk that he's wasting the leadership aptitude suggested by his test scores. Pike presses the point that Kirk's father saved over 800 lives in only 12 minutes as captain of a starship, and challenges Kirk to rise up to that legacy.

Meanwhile on Vulcan, Kirk's contemporary, a young, half-Vulcan/half-Human Spock (Jacob Kogan) is tormented by his Vulcan classmates for his mixed heritage. He lashes back at them in a rage uncharacteristic of purebred Vulcans, and is reprimanded by his father for it. Years later, when Spock (Zachary Quinto) is old enough for the Vulcan Science Academy to begrudgingly accept him, he turns down the offer and opts to join Star Fleet Academy instead.

Kirk and Spock get off on the wrong foot when Kirk manages to pass a test simulation, the Kobayashi Maru, engineered by Spock. Since the test was designed to be undefeatable by its nature (to test leadership character in the face of certain death), Spock accurately suspects fowl play, and gathers evidence that Kirk has planted a subroutine in the simulation to make it possible to beat the test

While Kirk is facing his accuser, Spock, on trial, the Federation gets an emergency call that Vulcan is under attack. The trial is interrupted to assemble selected Star Fleet cadets to the USS Enterprise to intervene. Though Kirk is grounded, his new friend, Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban), is able to bring him on board the Enterprise on medical grounds by making him temporarily sick beforehand.

The Enterprise travels to Vulcan to investigate the lightning storm in the planet's upper atmosphere. When Kirk hears about the lightning storm over the intercom, the de facto stowaway reveals his presence to Captain Pike and warns him that the ship is falling into a trap that mirrors what happened to Kirk's father. When the Enterprise disengages warp drive, it's attacked by the Narada.

The Plot Thickens

This is where the plot's chronology and motivations get contorted. 129 years later, Spock tried to save Romulus from an imminent supernova by bringing of supply of so-called "red matter" to the planet which, when ignited, would form a black hole that would scoop up any matter exploded from the supernova. Spock's journey to the planet was disrupted by an exploding star in his path.

Failing to save Romulus, Spock's ship is intercepted by the Narada, with Nero blaming Spock for the destruction of his fellow Romulans (his wife among them). The red matter, which Spock ejected from his ship, was ignited by the supernova, forming a black hole and distorting the space-time continuum. Before the Nero can finish off Spock, the block hole sweeps them both up and sends them through time to the past — but Nero his crew are sent back 25 years before Spock. Nero has been plotting and waiting to avenge himself on Spock, the Star Fleet cadet for 25 years.

I'll stop recounting the plot here to keep the review from becoming a novelization. I've left out numerous subplots to lay out the basic premise so I could address what I see as its basic flaws. Exactly why does Nero hate Spock? For allowing an explosion to derail his attempt to save Romulans, nearly dying himself in the process?

More incredulously, Nero takes his vengeance a couple of steps further. He has a vast drilling rig stationed in Vulcan's stratosphere to reach down and drill through the planet's crust to its core. The plan is to destroy Vulcan by depositing red matter into the core, turning the planet into a black hole. Nero also blames the Federation for not saving his people, so he decides to make Earth his next stop for black hole conversion. With Captain Pike in custody, Nero tortures him for the security codes to Earth's defense systems. Do advanced civilizations really give total access codes to officers?

The Good and Bad of Star Trek 11

True, my belief suspension muscles are pretty weak, but the plot holes (many of which I skipped — don't get me started on the "future Spock" in the film played by Leonard Nimoy himself) didn't keep me from having a good time.

While much of the acting lacked character continuity with TOS players, the performances in their own right had enough energy and charisma to keep the audience engaged from start to finish.

A prime example is Chris Pine. I personally couldn't imagine landing the role of Kirk and not taking a shot at aping William Shatner's verbal pauses and gesticulations. Zachary Quinto leaves most of Nimoy's mannerisms behind, but does a terrific job of conveying the inner conflict between Vulcan reserve and human expression. The easy-on-the-eyes Zoe Zaldana plays Uhura with virtually no behavioral reference to Nichelle Nichols' rendering, but she delivers her lines with a verve that makes up for the silly flirtation triangle between herself, Kirk and Spock that the writers have imposed.

Unfortunately, Eric Bana is saddled with a one-dimensional, mustache-twisting villain role that no amount of acting chops can reconcile. The writers clearly modeled Nero's character after Star Trek Khan, but even the great Ricardo Montalban himself couldn't have made Nero believable.

Some of the actors actually seemed to have done their homework and studied the original performances. Karl Urban does a great Leonard "Bones" McCoy that pays homage to DeForest Kelly's version, mimicking Kelly's facial expressions and affectionately grumpy speech patterns. Simon Pegg follows suit, channeling more than a little of James Doohan's characterization of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott.

As mentioned earlier, the production design was pretty astute. Anyone trying to maintain the aesthetics of a 40-year-old franchise set in the future (especially a few years before the "original" future) has his work cut out for him. Abrams' team did a great job of keeping the uniforms and costuming more or less consistent with the original series. The USS Enterprise is cut very close to the mold of the original design, only adding a few contours to keep it from looking completely outdated.

Is Star Trek a Warp Drive Ride?

In the Fellini's 8 1/2, a character looking at the fictional director's elaborate movie set remarks, "The prophet really lays it on thick," to which director responds, "You prefer films where nothing happens? In my films, I put in everything."

That's pretty much what Star Trek XI feels like: an attempt to pack every scrap of the Star Trek legacy into 127 minutes. Sticklers will knock it for lacking substance — pretty accurate so far — but as spectacle, the movie scores big time. If you're willing to sacrifice intellectual stimulation for two hours of robust entertainment, this is an Enterprise worth getting on board.

Stay tuned for my impressions of the DVD release.