If any film franchise was due for an update, none was more deserving
than the hoary Star Trek, which has trudged along almost 13
years since its last viable product (the movie Star Trek: First
Contact), but it has a titanic, four-decades-old foundation upon
which to build.
So, franchise with a history, meet hot filmmaker and TV-show
übermensch J.J. Abrams (Lost, Fringe, Alias,
Felicity). If your first offspring, the new movie simply titled
Star Trek, is any indication, may your couplings be fruitful.
Seriously, please have lots and lots of babies.
Abrams is going to wind up with the greatest share of credit for
helming a cast and crew that all hit home runs.
I’ll cite the cast and casting, which is as good as I’ve seen in an
ensemble action film — to an actor, they are uniformly excellent
— and I’ll mention the script, which is interesting and
intelligent always and fun and suspenseful in matters of great import
and no import. I’ll mention the classic, Homeric score by Michael
Giacchino, who, for my money, is the best film composer today. I’ll
mention the set design and costume folks, who update and enliven
familiar archetypes. And I’ll mention the special-effects people, who
seamlessly blend CGI and live action to produce a credible world.
But, to me, the lasting achievement may be the new film language of
outer space that Abrams creates. Talk about a subject due for an
update: Space had gotten downright boring of late.
Different from Stanley Kubrick’s slo-mo vacuum and George Lucas’
sweeping, operatic void, Abrams finds space both an infinite extension
of planetary atmosphere (with a lived-in, substantive feel to it) and a
primordial, protean zone that can stretch as far as the imagination
that thinks on it. Abrams’ camera follows suit as ships dip and twist
through three dimensions, reminding us that, after all, there’s no
upside down in outer space.
Now playing, multiple locations