Gene Roddenberry is smiling, the curse is broken
Of course you know who Gene Roddenberry is…. right?! I can assure you that even if you don’t know his name, you know his legacy well. He was the creator of Star Trek, and I’m certain he’s smiling right now. Beaming in fact. Perhaps even giggling.
His legacy has evolved yet again with the release of Star Trek, the eleventh film in the series. A popular legend is that the odd-numbered Star Trek films are “cursed” and generally are teh suck, while the even numbered ones are the excellent. Nemesis (#10) wasn’t great, and this latest Star Trek (#11) is insanely good, so I think it’s safe to say that the curse is broken.
Insanely good? No, that isn’t right. It’s…it’s… magnificent! Refreshing! A phoenix rising! Star Trek is an amazing piece of film, combining an exceedingly good story line with fresh faces, familiar characters and worlds, and the core principal of Roddenberry’s universal the-future-will-be-a-better-place outlook.
I spent all day Friday with my sister and her husband helping them get their new house ready. We did tons of yard work and the various and sundry nuts-and-bolts things that need done in a new house. It really is a great property and I’m super happy they got it. Of course, for all my manual labor, and with a healthy dose of nagging, I managed to drag my sister to the movie. Happily she seems to have enjoyed it, despite the fact that she thought it was going to be a geek fest.
There may be spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
The movie opens just moments before the birth of James Tiberius Kirk, whom most of us know as the original captain of The Enterprise. His mother Winona is in labor. His father George, due to a sudden and brutal attack on their starship, has been promoted to acting captain in mere minutes. The entire crew is facing certain death unless they abandon ship. As the evacuation begins Winona is raced to a shuttlecraft. George chooses to stay and pilot the starship directly into the enemy, buying the escapees some much needed time. Via radio he talks with his wife as she gives birth. They choose a name together. You can picture the end of the scene, right?
Less than ten minutes after the film opened I was on the edge of tears. The scene had every possible bit of the universe that Roddenberry created. New life, death, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and that persistently hopeful outlook for the future. As the opening titles began and I dabbed at the corners of my eyes a few times, I realized that this was not going just going to be a good Star Trek film, it was going to be a great film.
And damn it was good.
The success of the story is the alternate-reality that the characters we meet are living in. Star Trek explores, with a huge dose of comic relief, how the original crew came together on The Enterprise. Many of us know the characters as if they were old friends. But the fresh faced actors and actresses bring something new to the story. Their new blood isn’t just a function of youth. In a time when sci-fi stories tend to be dark, ominous, and full of jumbled philosophy, the world of Star Trek is, I believe, a known quantity of goodness.
Seeing the beautiful young actors, notably Zachary Quinto as Spock (okay, he is one of the most handsome men I’ve ever seen and plays a perfect Vulcan), Chris Pine as Kirk (handsome-yet-badboy-ladies-man), Zoe Saldana as a stellar Uhura and the comic relief of Karl Urban as Bones and Simon Pegg as Scotty, not just embrace the world of Star Trek, but bring a new spin on the legacy we know was amazing.
Well, we sort of know how amazing it was. Again, Star Trek, represents an alternate-reality for these characters, so anything goes. It’s a great mechanic that allowed the director J. J. Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to dig into the genesis of both Spock and Kirk.
Of the two, the passage into Spock’s half-human, half-Vulcan early life is deeper. We see Vulcan children learning to suppress emotion. We see Spock choose his path in life in both a human and a Vulcan way. And ultimately, when the time is ready, we watch him use both sides of his heritage together for the greater good.
Oh, and Spock and Uhura apparently have a thing. Hawt.
Star Trek is an incredible film, not only because it was pretty, with a good measure of righteous explosions, fantastic sets, magical costumes, gorgeous makeup, and great music. It was incredible because with this epic story, foreshadowed by the birth of Kirk in the opening scene, a new Star Trek universe has been born.
I can’t wait to watch it grow up.
May 11th, 2009
all I can say is
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!
I was SO blown away! You and I could have been sitting in the same theater! I used to get a tear at the end of the film (First Contact.. when the Vulcan pulls back the robe and you see that it’s a Vulcan… well, in Trek Fan world (not overzealous fan) that’s a moment!) but I was shedding a couple in the very beginning!
Zach Quinto had me already as Sylar… but the moment someone said his name and Spock in the same sentence over a year or so ago, I knew it was going to work, and work it did! and I just LOVED when he was accepted into the Vulcan Science Academy, was insulted about his human heritage and did the ultimate Vulc You! to the council! Loved that!
I have been waiting to blog myself about it (sans spoilers… i hope) but yours just got me revved to go do it.
Live long….