The other day I received an invite to a preview of the new Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield). This was quite a surprise for a couple of reasons: firstly the movie isn’t premiering until the 7th of May 2009 and secondly because Abrams had so far been decidedly secretive about this difficult undertaking. And make no mistake it is a difficult undertaking, with the commercial and critical failure of the last feature film Star Trek: Nemesis and the TV series, Star Trek: Enterprise, the future of the Star Trek franchise didn’t look good. Nevertheless, in come Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman with a brand new script that has the ambitious task of taking the series back to its prime while reinventing it for a new audience. This is something the series has debatably needed for quite some time, as Star Trek has always been one of the least accessible Sci-Fi franchises. So they had a fresh script – but that alone doesn’t make a blockbuster. What they needed was a big name director to pilot this ship and who they got was J. J. Abrams. The young action director who helmed hits like Mission Impossible 3 and Cloverfield is the Judd Apatow of action directors; the current ‘it’ guy.

Being a long-time Trekkie (meaning I just watch and enjoy the show not the dressing up as a Klingon and being generally creepy) I went into the preview with my mind decidedly undecided and my anticipation set to partially stunned (like 20% stunning capacity). They opened with the trailer which I think was a mistake as they had been playing it in a loop on the TVs where we had been waiting for several minutes and I had just joked to Kyle, who also attended, that the preview would be nothing but that. Then Abrams appeared… disappointingly only on screen. He thanked us for coming to the screening and apologised for not being able to make it. He then went on to talk about why he decided to make this movie, admitting he has never been a fan of the franchise.  He never mentioned any reference to Australia, so I wasn’t sure if this was a specific introduction for us or just the stock one recorded for all the international previews. That being said he cheerfully and charismatically introduced the first of four scenes.

As mentioned, both Kyle and I attended the screening. While I’m a big Star Trek fan, Kyle’s experience with the franchise is having seen a single episode of Star Trek: Voyager. We’ll both be providing feedback on what we thought on each of the four scenes we witnessed.

Be warned that the following is a partial account of the scenes and may contain “spoilers”, however if you are still on the fence about seeing the new Star Trek film it may be helpful.

Scene One: Young Kirk
This first scene is one early in the film and it involves a young James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) seemingly around the age of 20. It starts in a bar on Earth packed with Starfleet personal, locals and a few aliens. A young attractive Ohura (Zoe Saldana) walks across the room to the bar and orders a drink. Kirk approaches her and turns on the ‘charm.’ While Ohura shrugs off his ‘blue’ jokes they actually offend her fellow Starfleet cadets and a fight breaks out. The fairly brutal but humorous fight goes fairly long considering Kirk has to defend himself against three guys but it is eventually broken up by Starfleet Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) who was apparently a friend of Kirk’s father. Captain Pike invites the bruised Kirk to join Starfleet tempting him with the ability of becoming an officer in only four years and a Captain in eight. The next morning Kirk takes him up on his offer, jokingly saying: “four years? I’ll do it in three.”

Liam:
While quite formulaic this scene proved to be quite telling of the young Kirk. Chris Pine plays Kirk with the same cocksure attitude as William Shatner, except with much more energy and venom you except from a young adult that had a troubled and strict childhood. Bruce Greenwood also turns in another good performance which is he known for doing.

Kyle:
This first scene didn’t amaze me too much. It actually seemed like something that could have been in such franchise wrecking films such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Transformers – the latter in particular as James Kirk was about as charming as Sam Witwicky. That is to say, Kirk came off as an unlikable jerk as he persisted in bugging Ohura and then provoked the Starfleet cadets. Even after getting rejected and thrashed Kirk still seemed to think he was top dog. Of course, I’m sure Kirk’s character will change over the course of the film – but I’m really not a fan of these unsympathetic character types. Make a character flawed, sure – but a jerk isn’t fun to be around. Not to mention that the cinematography and editing of the fight scene was all shaky cameras and quick cuts (similar to Batman Begins), making impossible to tell what was actually happening. Even the dialogue scene between Kirk and Captain Pike was handheld, which was just jarring and distracting. That said I did really like one element of the scene. Right next to Ohura was this great big alien who resembled the troll from The Storyteller. Kirk was at the bar on the other side of this alien, so throughout Kirk and Ohura’s banter this alien was caught in the middle, clearly thinking they were both blowhards.

Scene Two: In space no one can hear the ‘splosions.
The second scene is after Kirk has been in Starfleet for a few years and he has spent most of that time getting into trouble. Because of this he is denied a spot on the Enterprise during its first mission to help the Vulcans during an environmental disaster but he is smuggled on by his best friend at the Academy, Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (Karl Urban). They do this by injecting Kirk with a vaccine which is meant to give Kirk mild symptoms so he can be put in the ships medical bay. However, he has an unexpected and humorous reaction to the vaccine which hampers his ability to warn the Captain about what he deduces to be an impending Romulan trap at planet Vulcan. It also doesn’t help that the ship’s 1st lieutenant Spock (Zachary Quinto) disagrees with Kirk and sees him as a liability on the ship. After some explaining and arguing Kirk convinces both Spock and Captain Pike and they quickly prepare the ship just before exiting warp into a field of starship debris and weapons fire.

Liam:
This scene seems to be a good example of what the film appears to be at a whole. It starts off with some funny but awkward humour, shows the conflicting relationship between Kirk and Spock who have yet to garner each others respect and gives us the first taste of a Star Trek space battle done by J. J. Abrams which appears to be more in the vein of Serenity or Battlestar Galactica than classic Star Trek. It also includes the appearance of a few characters notably Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) whose accent is played for laughs as it is a direct imitation of Walter Koenig’s Chekov despite it being a very stereotypical Russian accent even pronouncing his v’s as w’s.

Kyle:
After the dubious first scene, I was thrilled to enjoy this second one so much. Strangely enough, it actually reminded me of The Incredibles because of how well it was all staged, balancing humour and danger for a compounded effect. Furthermore, you had so many forces opposing Kirk: Doctor McCoy who was frantically trying to reverse the side effects and chasing after Kirk (warning him to keep his blood pressure low), the commanding officers of Enterprise and the unseen but deadly Romulans. The payoff was a brilliant shot looking across the bridge as the Enterprise warped. What was once calm, black space was an orange and black warzone. It was all incredibly impressive and exciting. It was here that I understood what J. J. Abram’s meant in his introduction when he praised the script for containing so much humour, action and adventure. Abram’s also mentioned that he was unable to make the screening as he was in the middle of doing the sound mix. The scenes we saw all looked quite advanced or complete – the only unfinished element noticeable was during the space battle in which the brass section of the orchestra was unusually quiet and distant.

Scene Three: Spock From The Future.
In this scene Kirk is with a version of Spock from the future, played by none other than Leonard Nimoy, who was (as if I need to explain this) the original actor who played Spock. Set in what appeared to be an industrial looking laboratory, Kirk and Spock met with Scotty, played by Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) accompanied by short, moldy looking alien. Scotty told of how he attempted and failed in his experiments to beam organic matter on board a craft moving faster than the speed of light, describing it as like trying to hit a traveling bullet with another bullet whilst firing from a galloping horse and wearing a blindfold. Spock explained that his theory was indeed possible, but that he hadn’t yet discovered it. After this Spock inputted the calculations into Scotty’s matter transporting device, leaving Scotty to remark in wonder: “wow, I never thought to think of space as the thing that was moving.” Spock and Kirk step into the device and Spock takes a moment to give Kirk warning and advice. Firstly, that he must never tell the Spock of Kirk’s own time of their meeting. Secondly, that there is a Starfleet loophole that says that if a commander is found to be emotionally compromised they must relinquish command. Soberly, Spock assures Kirk that he is most definitely emotionally compromised – Kirk just needs to reveal it.

Kyle:
Now I have no idea how faithful Simon Pegg was to the original character of Scotty, but I can say he did a great job of balancing humour and exposition. It looks like this might be Scotty’s only scene, but I hope not as he was such a fun character. Also fun was the way in which the script joyfully violated the known laws of science. A spaceship traveling at a speed faster than light is crazy enough, as it would require an infinite force to propel an infinite mass – not to mention the complications of sustaining human life at that speed. But the idea of teleporting life forms onto a warp speed ship was just…woah. Furthermore, if Spock traveled from the ‘future’ to the ‘present’ to tell Scotty the mathematical formula that he hadn’t yet discovered where did the information come from? This means that Scotty only found the correct calculations because Spock from the future gave it to him – and Spock only knew the calculations because Scotty had already discovered the calculations in Spock’s time. Assuming Spock did not devise the formula himself, there’s a complete lack of causality here. Of course, I don’t mean any of this as a negative. The ability to mess with scientific possibilities and fanciful ideas is what makes science fiction so much fun. The entire scene made me think fondly of that Futurama episode, A Clone Of My Own. Stephen Hawking would love this movie.

Liam:
Now that Kyle is done with his rant on the science behind this scene I should probably point out its importance. Time travel can make or break a movie (usually the latter) and it’s always been an important factor in Star Trek. For example the best (in my opinion) of the Star Trek movies was Star Trek: First Contact which was pretty much entirely about time travel. Then of course we have Star Trek: Enterprise which is widely considered the series that killed Star Trek and had an ever increasing amount of mind bending time travel plot holes. Taking that into mind I was dubious when I heard the movie involved time travel but it turns out I didn’t have much to worry about. This as far as I know is the only scene in the movie to involve time travel (however I could be wrong) it also as Spock mentions drastically alters the future meaning that any sequels to this film won’t have the problem of having to stay within the canon of the series and original movies.

Scene Four: Jumping to the drill platform.
In the final scene we were shown, Kirk, Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) and another Starfleet cadet were onboard a shuttle preparing to destroy a gigantic Romulan drill that was boring into planet Vulcan. To do this, Captain Pike explains over radio, requires the three of them freefalling from the shuttle as it flew over the drill and then pulling their parachutes at the last possible moment to land on the small platform at the base of the drill. Once on the drill they would place explosive charges (carried by the third cadet, wearing an ominous red uniform) and be beamed to safety. The three put their helmets on, got ready and a moment later were free falling down to the drill. The drill, as it turned out, more closely resembled a great metal stem of a thorny rose countless kilometres long. The actual drilling part of this monstrous machine appeared to be an intense lance of flame spewing from its base. The three plummeted down at intense speed, the dominant sound was of rushing as the ‘thorns’ of the drill whizzed past. Diving down, Kirk and Sulu pulled their chutes – but the third cadet recklessly kept freefalling, ignoring the warnings from the others over the radio. Finally, at about one thousand feet to the platform still falling dangerously fast the cadet pulled his chute – but he was too late. Although he managed to land on the platform, he hit it hard, tumbling over violently several times before falling off the edge, where his parachute got caught on the edge of the platform, swinging him directly into the lance of fire at the bottom of the drill and getting vaporised instantly in the heat. Sulu also hit the platform hard and struggled to come to stop on the platform, which was on a slight incline. He had to grab onto a notch in the platform to stop from rolling off and detach his parachute to stop from being blown off. Climbing up, Sulu found a Romulan guard had emerged from a port in the platform and engaged him in close quarters combat before he could shoot. As Kirk landed on the platform, with his parachute getting pulling back into his pack for re-use, a second guard emerged and so the two Starfleet cadets were both involved one-on-one fights on the relatively small platform. A conveniently placed fire vent and sword through the heart later, Kirk and Sulu used the rifles of the dead Romulan’s to destroy the platform controls and turn off the fire drill. We briefly got to see Eric Bana as Romulan villain Nero as he ordered the drop of a singularity bomb and retraction of the drill. With a black hole about to emerge in a matter of minutes and destroy the planet, Sulu and Kirk also found themselves with the problem of the drill platform disappearing under their feet. Sulu fell off and Kirk dived after him. Falling to meet him, Kirk grabbed onto Sulu who ejected Kirk’s parachute…only to see to the parachute gets ripped away. Still falling at speed, they frantically called for the Enterprise to beam them on board – but they were falling to fast to be locked on to. Hearing the distress signal, Chekov had a moment and realised he could save them. Running through the Enterprise (just like Kirk in the second scene) Chekov made it to the teleportation controls just in time to work quickly, lock onto Kirk and Sulu and beam them on board a fraction of the second before the would have landed. Meanwhile, Spock went to teleport to the planets surface to aid the planets evacuation and recover his parents.

Liam:
This final and most action packed scene we were shown was quite riveting. The introduction of Sulu lacks the humour of Scotty’s but he is competently played by John Cho. I was however a little disappointed with the death scene involving the red shirt ensign, the joke being that in the original series only the ensigns wearing red shirts died on away missions and this was mentioned by Abrams in his scene introduction, however the death seemed stupid. The ensign didn’t have any particular reason for risking such a late parachute deployment and considering he was the one carrying the explosives he was the most important person on the mission. I found it hard to believe that anyone would risk a mission to save an entire planet, just to show off.

So overall I found this preview of Star Trek to be quite enjoyable and I am looking forward to seeing it more then ever. With the new direction of this movie it’s sure to be quite well received from non-Star Trek fans, however I suspect Trekkies will be disappointed as this will be the end of the characters as they knew them and that this new movie perhaps embodies everything they didn’t like about other Sci-Fi.

Kyle:
As you might have already gathered by the lengthy scene description, this was a brilliantly intense scene. The sound design as they fell was masterful. Following the noise on board the aircraft, the sound of air and breathing was comparatively sparse – yet that only added to the danger. I wouldn’t like to think what would happen had one of the cadets collided with the drill. Much like the second scene, the staging of the action built itself up by layering all these simultaneous dangers. And once again, the joys of science fiction fantasy emerged in the form of this ‘singularity bomb.’ The idea of being able to generate a singularity of any size – let alone one capable of destroying a planet – within the bomb the size of a car is just crazy. But so crazy it just might be awesome. From start to finish, this scene was a rush and a huge success. Also I’m assuming Chekov’s ability to work the teleporter so skilfully will be set up in an earlier scene.

There were a few needlessly obscure camera angles and I do hope Kirk has a nice character arc, but otherwise this film looks to be a great experience. From what we saw today, you should be excited for Star Trek – even if you’re not a fan of the series.

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is in theatres in Australia 7 May 2009.