The original crew of the Starship Enterprise as young men and women is what we get from director J.J. Abrams and his writers in the ’09 “Star Trek,” a stirring adventure flick. Chris Pine (Jim Kirk) could use some charm and the plot could use a little less nonsense, but I thrilled at this-and-that–at some of Abrams’s action footage and the clever interaction between the Enterprise’s people.
The film is adeptly directed, edited, photographed and production-designed. It is a nice, fresh scene when Spock (Zachary Quinto) enters the ship elevator, then Uhura–Spock’s girlfriend! (Zoe Saldana)–enters, after which the dark-skinned officer sweetly comforts the quiet Vulcan now that evil Romulans have murdered his mother. Cropping up, too, are a couple of interesting images of planets being destroyed through implosion. Although lacking in charm, Pine is hardly uncompelling, while Quinto is merely okay. I’m not very assiduous about looking for cinematic sexism but, as often happens in movies, a woman–Saldana–gets half-naked for a brief while, but no man ever does. Maybe next time. Be that as it may, “ST” is almost as much fun as Abrams’s wacky TV series, “Lost.” As dramatic entertainment it means business. Permission to come on board.