Out of this worldBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"
"I like this ship! It's exciting!" Scotty (Simon Pegg)
Director J.J. Abrams has gone where few men have gone before him?a sequel better than the original. The new Star Trek takes characters and motifs from its past, mixes up the time track, and accurately shows the enduring Kirk, Spock, and Bones in their wild days before they actually take over the decades-old franchise. For Kirk and Bones, dark humor is and always was their drug of choice.
The centerfold of this benign space porn is blue-eyed James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), swashbuckling captain-to-be of the USS Enterprise. What remains consistent and is emphasized this time around is his brilliance and irreverence, a leader willing to take chances with an almost flawless gut-instinct. Contrary to Spock's (Zachary Quinto) righteous logic, Kirk's instinct tells him to pursue Romulan baddie, Nero (Eric Bana), rather than regroup with federation gunships as Nero hastily moves to Earth's destruction.
The acting is just right for the franchise tradition, right down to Chekov (Anton Yelchin) having a loud, extreme Russian accent, amped up from Walter Koenig's original. Abrams lets Yelchin go over the top, and for that extreme I was annoyed.
Along the way Kirk has more adventures than James Bond on his best day, for me a few too many activities because of my interest in character development over action. But I get a bit of that development as I watch Spock struggle with his half-human emotions while Kirk abandons the rational in favor of the romantic.
The emphasis on leadership in this Star Trek is much more successful than ever before because we can see the importance of nature and nurture in both Kirk and Spock during their formative years. Kirk comes from a father who in the first hour of his command gives up his life for hundreds on his vessel in an act of heroism that defines the Kirkean mojo of romantic courage coupled with strategic genius.
As for Spock, this is what he says and who he is: "Fear is necessary for command."
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml Friday at 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm and on demand anytime at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain