Variety on ‘Star Trek’: It’s ‘sci-fi nirvana’!

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The suits at Paramount, along with filmmaker-impresario J.J. Abrams, have to be busting their buttons today after reading the first big review of their reconfigured ‘Star Trek,’ which Variety’s Todd McCarthy calls a ‘smart and breathless space adventure [that] feels like a summer blockbuster that just couldn’t stay in the box another month.’ McCarthy adds: ‘Paramount won’t need any economic stimulus package with all the money it’ll rake in with this one globally, and a follow up won’t arrive soon enough.’

I’ve taken my shots at Variety’s often toothless news coverage, but its critics are another matter, often providing the first (and usually the canniest) assessments of multiplex-bound movies, analyzing both their creative choices and commercial prospects. McCarthy has an especially nice knack for description, whether he’s noting that Eric Bana’s Nero, the film’s ferocious villain, resembles ‘a tattooed, grizzled brother of Ralph Fiennes’ Voldemort in the ‘Harry Potter’ series’ or saying that the new Enterprise ‘might be compared to the new Yankee Stadium -- it’s spiffier and technically more up-to-date, but has a familiar ambiance.’

For me, perhaps the most interesting thing about the new ‘Star Trek’ is that it goes back to the beginnings of the story, showing how the young flyboy James Kirk ends up at Starfleet Academy, eager to join the crew of the Enterprise. This tack represents another example of a growing trend in studio circles of reinventing franchises with an origin story, something we’ve seen with ‘Batman Begins’ and the ‘Casino Royale’ chapter of the James Bond series, as well as with the upcoming ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine.’ Of course, the granddaddy of this back-to-the-origins style of storytelling is George Lucas, who took us back to the future with his second trio of ‘Star Wars’ films.

Why is this such a popular storytelling style right now? Any thoughts?