It's Star Trek, Jim, but not as we know it. Taking us back to the original era of Star Trek, or at least the genesis of it, this film introduces us to baby Kirk and Spock before fast-forwarding to their first mission out of Star Fleet Academy. Here we also meet younger, prettier, versions of Bones, Uhuru, Sulu, Chekhov, and, much later on, Scotty. In a cunning departure from the original timeline an evil Romulan called Nero (Eric Bana) has come back from the future to exact revenge on young Spock (Zachary Quinto, with his delectable eyebrows disguised) after older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) apparently destroyed his home-planet many years in the future. Confused yet? You will be as JJ Abrams once again proves his taste for time travelling characters and plotlines. After watching the season finale of Lost on Sunday night, and then this, I'm really not sure when I am anymore. Anyway, owing to the Trousers of Time effect we're shooting off down an alternative leg of Star Trek history and nothing is what you think. Spock becomes captain of the newly minted USS Enterprise after its original Captain, played by Bruce Greenwood, is captured by Nero and forced to eat a funny beetle which will torture his brain stem for the rest of the film. Nice. Kirk is kicked off the Enterprise after punching Spock, and marooned on an ice-world. He is chased by a hairy snow-beast, which is eaten by a giant red insectoid thing (you can almost hear Qui-Gon saying 'there's always a bigger fish') and hurtles into a cave where he meets Original Flavour Spock, who has come through the same black hole as Nero. The two of them battle through the weather to find the nearest Star Fleet outpost and here they meet Scotty, and a small crustacean, and Spock beams the two of them back to the Enterprise to save history, and the Planet Earth, which Nero has decided to destroy for reasons I forget. They save Earth but the history of Star Trek has been changed forever, allowing Abrams scope to create an entirely new mythology with his spangly new cast.
Despite its silliness and departure from the original canon I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I've seen a fair bit of Star Trek over the years, though little of the original series, so I know who everyone's supposed to be, but I wasn't mortally offended by the liberties Abrams takes. I don't know how the dyed-in-the-wool Trekkies have taken it, but I imagine there's enough in-jokes and clever references to keep them entertained by this film. I loved the style of it, it manages to link the 60s/70s ridiculousness of the original series, with the sleekness of the 90s, and bring the design bang up to date too. The skirts are short, the v-necks are tight, and the Enterprise has never looked so good. I also enjoyed the slightly caricatured versions of the famous seven characters. Chris Pine is arrogant, annoying, and aptly heroic as Kirk. Zachary Quinto channels Nimoy but also makes the role of Spock his own in a delightful turn marking him out as more than just a flash in the pan as Naughty Sylar in Heroes. There isn't enough of Simon Pegg as Scotty, but what we do see is very promising and I also really enjoyed Karl Urban's over the top turn as Bones (his facial expressions are worth the admission price alone). Zoe Saldana gives Uhuru some attitude, and appears to have a little romance going with Spock. Anton Yelchin gives a cute-as-a-former-soviet-button performance as Chekhov, and made me want to see much more of him (I was very excited to note that he appears in a segment of the forthcoming 'New York, I Love You' film).
As well as the fabulous characters there's also a hearty dose of Abrams usual time-travelling fun and games, and I for one am completely in favour of his new 'alternative timeline' for the Star Trek universe. I assumed that this was just a one-off film but if it leads to a suite of films with these actors then I would be very pleased indeed. It may be silly and over the top, but it works, and judging by the number of trekkie-isms I've come across in the last week or so it seems to have permeated the general consciousness in a manner that bodes well for Abrams and co.
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