Star Trek by Erik Wallin

Analyzing the Analyzer

Theme and director’s intentions

1. "'Star Trek' goes back to the legend's roots with a boldness that brings a fatigued franchise back to life." (Morgenstern)

2. "For the eleventh “Star Trek,” which arrives ready-branded, peopled with a set of action figures, led by Kirk and Spock, who require neither introduction nor advertisement but, rather, a simple chance to freshen up." (Lane)

3. "'Star Trek' as a concept has voyaged far beyond science fiction and into the safe waters of space opera, but that doesn't amaze me." (Ebert)

Separate elements and their relationship to the whole

1. "Each one of the now-iconic members of the USS Enterprise's crew gets rising-star treatment. That includes, of course, a young Scotty, played with irresistible verve by Simon Pegg; an extremely young Ensign Chekov (Anton Yeltsin) and an extremely alluring Uhura (Zoe Saldana), along with Karl Urban as "Bones" McCoy (artfully prefiguring the late DeForest Kelley), John Cho as Sulu and Bruce Greenwood in the smallish but significant role of Pike, the Enterprise's first captain. Yet the main source of delight is the evolution of First Officer Spock, and the tangled roots of his fraught relationship with Jim Kirk." (Morgenstern)

2. "It begins peacefully enough, with a Federation starship, the U.S.S. Kelvin, being dragged into an apocalyptic ambush by a tattooed Romulan maniac in a pitch-black battle cruiser, who slaughters the human captain and blows the Kelvin to kingdom come, even as the howling wife of the second-in-command gives birth inside an escape pod. As I say, a quiet start. In the midst of this, the doting parents find time, over the airwaves, to have one of those “No, darling, what would you like to call the baby?” conversations that bring so much joy to interstellar couples everywhere." (Lane)

3. "The 2009 “Star Trek” film goes back eagerly to where “Star Trek” began, using time travel to explain a cast of mostly the same characters, only at a younger point in their lives, sailing the Starship Enterprise. As a story idea, this is sort of brilliant and saves on invention, because young Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and the rest channel their later selves. The child is father to the man, or the Vulcan, and all that." (Ebert)

Objective evaluation of the film

1. "All too often the trailer is better than the movie, but not, it turns out, in the case of "Star Trek." If you want to know why this huge production will be a huge success -- and why it deserves to be -- you can find the answer in the terrific trailer that's been showing for many months." (Morgenstern)

2. "He is the perfect purveyor of fictions to a generation so easily and instinctively jaded that what it craves, above all, is a storyteller who—with or without artistic personality, and regardless of any urge to provoke our thoughts or trouble our easy dreams—will never jade." (Lane)

3. "The Gene Roddenberry years, when stories might play with questions of science, ideals or philosophy, have been replaced by stories reduced to loud and colorful action. Like so many franchises, it’s more concerned with repeating a successful formula than going boldly where no “Star Trek” has gone before." (Ebert)

Subjective evaluation of the film

1. "That's why it's so stirring to see old Spock on the same big screen as the ardent kids who grew up to be his peers. We've traveled light-years in their company." (Morgenstern)

2. "But fear not. Here comes J. J. Abrams, riding in like Shane to save the threatened franchise." (Lane)

3. "Don’t get me wrong. This is fun. And when Leonard Nimoy himself returns as the aged Spock, encountering another Spock (Zachary Quinto) as a young man, I was kind of delighted, although as is customary in many sci-fi films, nobody is as astonished as they should be. Holy moly! Time travel exists, and this may be me! It’s more like a little ambiguous dialogue is exchanged, and they’re off to battle the evil Romulan Capt. Nero (Eric Bana)." (Ebert)

The film’s level of ambition

1. "That evolution doesn't stop at Spock's youth. In the best of the production's bold strokes, Leonard Nimoy closes the circle by giving a lovely, layered performance in the role he said he'd never play again. Thanks to the intricate manipulation of time (which I found barely fathomable) the elder Spock, dubbed Spock Prime, does not merely come on board, but serves the movie as its heart and soul." (Morgenstern)

2. "In all narratives, there is a beauty to the merely given, as the narrator does us the honor of trusting that we will take it for granted. Conversely, there is something offensive in the implication that we might resent that pact, and, like plaintive children, demand to have everything explained." (Lane)

3. "The 2009 “Star Trek” film goes back eagerly to where “Star Trek” began, using time travel to explain a cast of mostly the same characters, only at a younger point in their lives, sailing the Starship Enterprise. As a story idea, this is sort of brilliant and saves on invention, because young Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and the rest channel their later selves. The child is father to the man, or the Vulcan, and all that." (Ebert)

Words you found interesting.

1. "Far from remaining confined by the steely Vulcan logic that came to dominate Spock's personality, the script, by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman" (Morgenstern)

2. "He is the perfect purveyor of fictions to a generation so easily and instinctively jaded that what it craves, above all, is a storyteller who—with or without artistic personality, and regardless of any urge to provoke our thoughts or trouble our easy dreams—will never jade." (Lane)

3. "This method of transportation prevents any sense of wonder at the immensity of outer space and is a convenience not only for the starship but also for the screenwriters, who can push a button and zap to the next scene" (Ebert)

Relationship to film movements/genres/ relation to other filmmakers’ work.

1. "In a marketing move that's shrewd and amusing in equal parts, today's opening of "Star Trek" will be followed by next Tuesday's DVD re-release of "Galaxy Quest," an inspired "Star Trek" parody. The plot of the 1999 feature film turns on a cosmic joke. A desperate band of Thermians, the last survivors of a distant planet, come to Earth seeking help from the washed-up actors of a worn-out TV series called "Galaxy Quest." They've been watching the series from its inception, and have mistaken the tacky episodes for historical texts." (Morgenstern)

2. "Abrams made his reputation in television, conjuring up “Alias” and “Lost”—another show that began in vigorous style and has shown increasingly little sign of knowing how to stop. He directed the third “Mission: Impossible,” which had its own distant echo of the small screen, before producing “Cloverfield,” a monster-eats-Manhattan flick weakened only by our reluctance to care about, or even notice, which of its appetizing youngsters had become an entrée." (Lane)

3. "Time travel as we all know, is impossible in the sense it happens here, but many things are possible in this film. Anyone with the slightest notion of what a black hole is, or how it behaves, will find the black holes in “Star Trek” hilarious. The logic is also a little puzzling when Scotty can beam people into another ship in outer space, but they have to physically parachute to land on a platform in the air from which the Romulans are drilling a hole to the Earth’s core. After they land there, they fight with two Romulan guards, using ... fists and swords? The platform is suspended from Arthur C. Clark’s “space elevator,” but instead of fullerenes, the cable is made of metallic chunks the size of refrigerators." (Ebert)

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1. Morgenstern, Joe. "Film Review: 'Star Trek' - WSJ.com Business News and Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - wsj.com Web. 08 May 2009 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124173204531997947.html>

2. Lane, Anthony "Highly Illogical" The New Yorker. Web. 18 May 2009 <http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/05/18/090518crci_cinema_lane>

3. Ebert, Roger. "Star Trek" rogerebert.suntimes.com 6 May 2009 Web. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090506/REVIEWS/905069997>