The Trekkies simply dazzle

We have a liftoff here in the final frontier! The Trekkies have returned much to our delight and they simply dazzle. Even if you do not like sci-fi adventures and costumed superheroes, the latest film will surely beam you up! The eleventh feature film, which is based on Gene Roddenberry’s popular TV series Star Trek, which first aired in 1966 on NBC (USA) and subsequently created a new brand culture, is stunning and superbly entertaining. The spirit of adventure is intact and the fully loaded film has an amazing multiethnic young cast — James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Capt Nero (Eric Bana), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Anton Yelchin and Sulu (John Cho) — which makes it all the more edgy.

The latest spinoff from Paramount Pictures is more of a prequel. Using time travel, director J J Abrams (who has given us Lost, Alias and Mission Impossible III) takes us to ground zero and tells us how the crew of the USS Enterprise — Kirk, Spock, ship’s doctor McCoy, linguist Uhura, Ensign Chekov, engineer Scotty and navigator Sulu — first met. The interesting conversations and interactions that take place in the brightly lit deck of the starship are the major highlights of the film, besides of course the intense action, flashing lasers and expensive special effects.

Star Trek is essentially about the continuous debates between the uber cool, analytical Spock and the reckless and impulsive Kirk about planets and civilisations and their discontents. Both men disagree on almost everything, but they need to keep aside their differences to destroy the barbaric Nero.

The film opens with a loud chaotic scene with fireballs and airborne bodies and a disintegrating Federation Starship with its devoted hero Captain George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), who refuses to leave his ship. But he manages to evacuate his pregnant wife. Unleashing terror is Capt Nero’s technically superior monstrous Romulan starship with dagger-like tentacles. With his baritone voice and tattooed face, Eric Bana looks evil.

We take a first look at the young James Tiberius Kirk recklessly driving down an Iowa highway and then as a young adult who accepts Capt Christopher Pike’s (Bruce Greenwood) challenge to emulate his father’s heroism.

Kirk and Spock don’t meet in person until they are adults at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. While Quinto lets you see and hear the struggle between the human and the Vulcan (void of emotions) in Spock, the adventurous and spontaneous Kirk adds dramatic force. Eventually, an emotionally compromised Spock has to forfeit his captaincy and Kirk takes control over the ship.

The swanky Starship Enterprise and its young crew including women cadets like Uhura (Zoe Saldana) in sexy short skirts and boots add glamour to the sci-fi fantasy.

Celebrating diversity and hope, Star Trek definitely makes itself audacious and is thoroughly enterprising.

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/2009/06/06181132/The-Trekkies-simply-dazzle.html