I really went into this film, absolutely, wanting to destroy this film piece by piece. I could not believe that they were going to relaunch one of my all time favorite TV shows and they were not going to include William Shatner (the original James T Kirk) in this new film. I even listed this film as one of my 10 summers, “Do Not See” List. After the film was over, I was so glad that i was wrong about this choice.
Now for those who are very pure in their belief of “Star Trek” please stop reading this review right now and do not see the film at all cost. It will really upset you.
HUGE SPOILER ALERT PLOT From Wikipedia)
The film opens with the Federation starship USS Kelvin investigating a “lightning storm” in space. It turns out to be a black hole, and the Narada, a large and heavy-armed Romulan vessel, emerges from it and attacks. The Kelvin’s captain, Richard Robau (Faran Tahir) is captured and killed by the Romulan captain Nero (Eric Bana). First officer George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) takes command and sacrifices himself and the Kelvin by ramming it into the Romulan ship in order to allow the rest of the crew to escape. During the escape, George’s wife Winona (Jennifer Morrison) gives birth to a son: James Tiberius Kirk.
About 22 years later, Kirk (Chris Pine) grows into an intelligent but reckless adolescent. He meets Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) in a bar in Iowa and is goaded into enrolling in Starfleet. During his education on Earth, he is suspended for cheating on an unwinnable test designed by the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock (Zachary Quinto). However, Kirk is smuggled on board the USS Enterprise by his friend, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban), as it is sent on its maiden flight to investigate a distress signal originating from the planet Vulcan: Captain Pike commands the ship, with Spock as his first officer, and Uhura is assigned to the ship as well. En-route, Kirk realizes that the situation is similar to the one 25 years ago when his father died; with Uhura’s and McCoy’s help, he convinces Captain Pike that the Enterprise is heading into a trap. When the Enterprise arrives, they find the rest of the Starfleet ships destroyed and Nero’s ship, the Narada, using a drilling apparatus to tunnel to the planet’s core. After promoting Spock to captain and Kirk to first officer, Pike surrenders to Nero, giving Kirk and fellow crew member Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) a chance to destroy the drill. Nevertheless, Nero destroys Vulcan with a small amount of “red matter”, dropped into the planet’s core, which creates a black hole that consumes the planet from within. Six billion of the Vulcan people die, including Spock’s human mother, Amanda (Winona Ryder).
Nero puts the Narada on a course for Earth with the intention of destroying it. Kirk wants to follow Nero immediately, but Spock insists that the Enterprise regroups with the fleet as per their orders. Spock has Kirk expelled from the Enterprise to the nearby ice planet Delta Vega, where he meets Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy). This elderly Spock explains that, 120 years in the future, he tried to rescue the Romulan planet from destruction by a nearby supernova by neutralizing the supernova with a black hole using his ship, which contains the red matter. Spock did not complete his mission in time to save Romulus, and Nero vowed to take revenge on Spock and the Federation. The black hole transferred both Spock and Nero to the past. Spock takes Kirk to a nearby Starfleet outpost and introduces him to Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg), a master engineer and pioneer of beaming technology. Scott and Kirk are teleported back onto the Enterprise and, taking Spock Prime’s advice, Kirk goads the younger Spock into attacking him and demonstrating that he is “emotionally compromised”. As a result, Spock relieves himself of command; because Kirk is the next-highest ranking officer, he becomes the new captain of the Enterprise.
Captain Kirk takes the Enterprise to Earth, intending to stop the Narada on his own. Spock, Scott and math-whiz Chekov (Anton Yelchin) figure out a way to beam aboard the Narada, allowing Kirk and Spock to stage a surprise attack. While Spock steals Spock Prime’s ship and lures the Narada away from Earth, Kirk rescues Pike. Spock crashes his ship into the Narada, detonating the red matter and creating a black hole that, aided by a full barrage of the Enterprise’s weaponry, destroys the ship. However, Kirk, Spock and Pike are rescued by the Enterprise’s timely arrival, which is in turn saved from being pull.
Captain Kirk takes the Enterprise to Earth, intending to stop the Narada on his own. Spock, Scott and math-whiz Chekov (Anton Yelchin) figure out a way to beam aboard the Narada, allowing Kirk and Spock to stage a surprise attack. While Spock steals Spock Prime’s ship and lures the Narada away from Earth, Kirk rescues Pike. Spock crashes his ship into the Narada, detonating the red matter and creating a black hole that, aided by a full barrage of the Enterprise’s weaponry, destroys the ship. However, Kirk, Spock and Pike are rescued by the Enterprise’s timely arrival, which is in turn saved from being pulled into the black hole by Scott. Back on Earth, Kirk is commended, promoted to captain and given permanent command of the Enterprise from now-Admiral Pike. Spock Prime visits his younger self and explains that he helped Kirk directly because he wanted to ensure that the young Spock and Kirk would come to an understanding of each other and become friends. The younger Spock is convinced to stay with Starfleet, requesting and being accepted as the Enterprise’s first officer. As the Enterprise warps away, Spock Prime recites the series’ motto:
’93 Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.
By the time Spock was stating the series Motto, I was cheering and I could not believe that they had done “Star Trek” correctly.
Now you must remember one thing, the time line was altered by the Narada. So what we think was Star trek is now another reality of it. Once i saw that I realized that, I was going on one heck of a trip.
I must also now agree that having a prime James Kirk, would have destroyed this film. Please watch the scene where Prime Spock, talks to the younger Kirk, you can see the pain in his eyes knowing that he has seen his old friend die and now he can help the younger one live. Also, the next scene where, we are introduced to Scotty, was a classic with Prime Spock telling Scotty the formula that, Scotty, would later invent.
What was also different was the unwritten love between Uhura and Spock. You could definitively see what Spock’s mother, had been trying to teach him about love.
Leonard Nimoy stated that he actually cried when he saw the scene of Kirk meeting Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. He remembered his old friend, the original McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Nimoy tells America’s TV Guide magazine, “I started crying – and it (scene) still moves me now. I loved D-Kelley, salt of the earth.
I could break down this film piece by piece but, only you, the reader, can decide, if this film is worth your time and money. Please see this film in a digital cinema.
Grade. A+
Spock: We are traveling at warp speed. How did you manage to beam aboard the ship?
Kirk: You’re the genius. You figure it out.
Spock: As acting Captain of this vessel, I order you to answer the question.
Kirk: Well, I’m not telling, acting Captain. What? Did…
[Kirk smiles]
Kirk: Oh, now that doesn’t frustrate you, does it? My lack of cooperation? That doesn’t…
[Spock turns to Scotty]
Spock: Are you a member of Starfleet?
Scotty: Uh, yes. Can I get a towel?
Opened in Korea on 7 May 2009.
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something that really sets this new Star Trek apart from the oldies (though they are still goodies) is the total lack of drag. When I watch those old Star Treks I inevitably get the feeling that this or that scene is being drawn out way too much
one thing i don’t understand.. romulus is still around in Next Generation. so this spock is also from a different alternate reality from the original canon timeline since this romulus never survived? also, things are fixable. they were able to fix the timeline in star trek: voyage home and star trek: first contact.. was spock prime just too disturbed to take us around the sun again?
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the movie was still awesome, don’t get me wrong.
Nah, Romulus was destroyed buy Hobus star supernova later in the startrek comic: “count down”. It was not alternate timeline, just later in TNG timeline. The delay of Spock was caused by both Vulcan and Romulan unwilling to cooperates in using the red matter to stop the supernova. Nero was good guy at first, helping Spock, but later went mad and upgrade his mining vessel into “unstoppable” warship using Borg tech.
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Q: Why need to drill into planet’s core to detonate red matter? Why not just throw it onto planet’s orbit and watch it sucks the surface :> Where are the earth defences when Nero can just put a drill right on top of Starfleet’s base and having thousands witness it just to show off? It is not weather balloons…
As a miner, shouldn’t Nero be from the twin mining planet of Romulus, Remus, which survived the bloodbath of a Romulan/Reman/Vulcan civil war thanks to the work of TOS players (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott) and TNGers (Picard and Riker) while facing opposition from certain corners of Starfleet (Admiral Janeway) in the William Shatner’s novel, \’93Captain’s Blood?\’94 Oh, yeah, Kirk’s young son, Joseph, played a major role in helping unify those of Vulcan/Romulan/Reman blood with his own mixed-race blood against an enemy from Kirk’s (TOS) past with a little help from Voyager\’92s holographic doctor.
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The great thing about this new movie is that it provides alternative timeline/universe theories to the series and re-validates all Trek non-cannon in doing so. Now brilliant novels like “Federation” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are part of canon again which is wonderful after Zephram Cochrane was so-maligned in the travesty that was the film “Star Trek: First Contact.”
Sorry, I didn’t know that “Star Trek: Countdown” is a prequel to this latest Trek film and has just been released to give Nero a bit of back story and explain about red matter and Spock’s part in it all.
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However, thanks to this canon destroying film, those of us TOS fans can take comfort that Kirk and company are still around in TNG’s timeline as indicated in the books by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens and other assorted comics and books.