Star Trek

The Star Trek sequel is a luscious ride for the Trekkie fan – but sadly it will appeal to no one else.

It is loaded with the 9 ingredients, and is faithful to the Star Trek legacy, including a rich role for Leonard Nimoy's Dr. Spock, though 5 out of 17 people we interviewed were disappointed there was no William Shatner's Capt. Kirk in the film. 

The opening sequence is of true blockbuster proportions, dripping with the 9 ingredients – Undeserved Misfortune for many key characters; Curiosity resulting in both Superior Position and Mystery, a Visible Villain you Love to Hate, a true Hero who gives up his life that his nation might live, Jeopardy and Sword of Damocles; Conflict of Wills – it’s packed with the 9 reasons people want to go to one movie and not an=other – especially the Trekkie fans. 

However, in the second sequence, the picture almost nose dives into a flip.  It’s as bad and absurd as any scene in a major franchise tent pole picture could possibly be.  It takes the ingredients of Credibility and “What if …” and obliterates them. 

Our new Capt. James T. Kirk as a teenager, is racing in a convertible at what seems like 200 mph – and then he does something incredibly stupid, something no sane person would ever do, teenager or not.  While racing at 200 mph – without stopping – he opens the convertible top, which immediately flies off … as any fool knew would happen.  It flies off neatly and compactly without breaking in any way.

James T. Kirk is so stupid he’s racing at 200mph headed straight for a cliff, which he discovers too late, and tries to unsuccessfully skid to a halt.  He jumps out of the car as it goes over the cliff, and he skids along helplessly towards the edge and starts to go over --  but wait – he catches hold of the cliff by his fingertips - hanging on for dear life. 

This holding on by the fingertips is a device Director Abrams loves.  He has it happen over and over again in the picture – so many times even Trekkie fans guffaw at it. 

The second sequence so seriously violates a key ingredient - namely that your Hero cannot be evil or stupid, and our new James T. Kirk in his introductory scene shows himself to be the most stupid Hero ever seen in a franchise film. 

But Abrams recovers nicely, and though there are several sequences where Credibility is demolished –the overwhelming majority of the film is loaded with the 9 ingredients to such an extent Star Trek will clearly do $250-275 million US.

However, the picture is so loaded with slam-bang extremely loud explosives – almost continuous throughout the film – and is so convoluted and obtuse a story that it will appeal to nobody but the Trekkie fans and the violent video gamers it was intended for.

Two of the ingredients it lacks are Humor, and the most important one of all to reach the $400-500 million US box office – the Love Story.  Yes, there is a flicker of a Love Story between Uhura and Spock, but it never develops and goes anywhere, and there is the tiniest hint of Humor with James T. Kirk getting medical shots in the neck, but that’s it.  Star Trek is devoid of the magnificent kind of Love Story that makes a Titanic the All-Time US box office champion.  It doesn’t even have the beautiful Love Story of Forrest Gump.

In summary:  Trekkie fans will be more than satisfied with the pyrotechnics of the computer graphics, and the rest of the 9 ingredients in this latest Star Trek film.