“Cloverfield,” “Lost,” “Alias,” “Fringe” and “Felicity” all have one very important person behind them: J.J. Abrams.
Everything Abrams touches seems to turn into gold. He’s proven himself to be both an incredibly competent TV producer and a great movie director.
His latest project, a reboot of the beloved “Star Trek” franchise, has been hugely successful, grossing more than $75 million in its first weekend at the box office.
“An opening like this definitely indicates that moviegoers outside the core base of Trekkies showed up,” Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock said in an E-mail to E (Entertainment online).
The movie successfully accomplishes at what it aims to do, which is to make “Star Trek” relevant to the potential next generation of Trekkies.
Chris Pine, the new Kirk, does a good job at making “Star Trek” fun again, bringing a much-needed comedic aspect to the franchise, in addition to his youthful idealism.
Unquestionably, the standout performer of the movie, Spock, played by Zachary Quinto, of “Heroes,” manages to bring a character that is the essence of alien nerdiness to a very human level.
Spock’s conflict of emotion and logic is the most human element of “Star Trek” and drives much of the film’s dramatic scenes.
At first, John Cho as Sulu seems out of place. After all, it was only a year ago that we saw him blazing in “Harold & Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” but he brings a level of seriousness to the role, which he hasn’t shown before and although his character is slightly undeveloped, the new Sulu is a moderate success.
Eric Bana, of “Hulk,” who plays Nero, succeeds at acting as a villain bent on revenge, but the writers of the film failed to create a villain with any true depth. He’s evil, he has issues with The Federation and that’s about it.
The movie opens with an incredible action scene, notable for its big-budget, computer-generated goodness.
This lets the viewer know that Abrams means business in the action department, going all out to make sure “Star Trek” is at the forefront of sci-fi space action.
There are multiple scenes throughout the movie that impress, some hand-to-hand fighting and some in ship shoot-outs that all amount to one very action-focused movie.
Abrams’ success at remaking “Star Trek” as an intense action movie is also one of the movie’s major faults.
Helmed by Abrams, “Star Trek” largely abandons the intellectually stimulating aspects of the “Star Trek” franchise.
Gone are questions of race relations in space, exploring socially relevant issues while maintaining a fair bit of sci-fi camp; in fact, Spock’s struggle to decide between logic and emotion is as deep as the movie gets.
This will undoubtedly turn-off a lot of long time Trekkies, but those able to look past it will find that the film leaves a lot of room for exploration within the “Star Trek” universe, and one hopes that future films in the series will explore the deeper aspects of franchise.
What you’re left with is an incredibly satisfying sci-fi action adventure experience, quite unlike anything else debuting this summer, with intriguing characters and enough action and drama to keep the audience left moonstruck.
