Film Review - by Layth Barzangi

Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin and Leonard Nimoy

Whichever way you slice it, Star Trek is a thoroughly enjoyable summer blockbuster. As an old time Trekkie and a fan of The Original Series, I was obviously going to be extremely cynical, but J.J. Abrams clearly understands the Trek mythology, and pays homage to the sort of camp camaraderie that defined the professional and personal relationship between the senior Enterprise crew.

I have to also commend the casting. Many people have been hailing Zachary Quinto''s casting as the young Spock. I do agree with them, but I think the real revelation here is Chris Pine. Apart from the amusing allusions to Shatner''s "ladies man" persona, Pine somehow finds all the subtle (and not so subtle) quirks (kirks?) of Shatner''s original portrayal, and channels them through his own characterization of a brash yet brilliant younger version of the legendary captain. If you pay close attention, you can easily detect the same inflections and intonations in his verbal delivery — the stuff that is in no small way part of the over-the-top, theatrical performance that made Shatner''s Kirk such an iconic sci-fi figure. Thankfully, Pine tones it down to just the right level, and for that his Kirk works just as effectively.

The same applies to the rest of the cast, specifically Chekov (a hilarious Anton Yelchin) and Scotty (an even more hilarious Simon Pegg). All in all, as much as I consider the original cast as irreplaceable legends, I am well and truly sold on this new young cast, and actually look forward to more adventures based on this highly successful reboot.

The story itself is pretty straightforward and will not score any points in terms of originality. Even worse, if you want to get technical, the "science" explaining the events taking place is blasphemous heresy of astronomical proportions (pardon the pun). But then again, that is really a non-issue in the grand scheme of things, and is even more forgivable because it allows us to meet a future older Spock, portrayed by none other than the man himself. I must have attended last night''s show with quite a number of Trekkies, because when the older Spock turned to speak to the younger version of his long-time friend, and we saw Nimoy''s face for the first time, the audience started to loudly cheer and applaud. In many ways, that was probably the peak moment of the night.

Now that Kirk has been named Captain, and all crew are securely in place, I am eagerly looking forward to more. J.J. Abrams did an excellent job here, but if this reboot is going to succeed and survive on the long term, then it is time to get down to some serious writing. One of the greatest triumphs of The Original Series was not only that it was a novel concept for a TV series at its time, but most importantly, because it featured some of the best and most creative sci-fi writing, with ideas and concepts that easily hold their own 40 years later. Whoever is going to write any upcoming Star Trek screenplays, I implore you to proceed at half impulse power and not rush things through. We have the cast and we have the technology. With the right kind of ideas, this franchise may actually enjoy the revival that it surely needs and deserves.