Fun if slightly fan fictional

Rating: 7/10 (1 October 2010)

PLOT IN A NUTSHELL: When a blood thirsty Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) and his crew arrive in the 23rd century, they set off a chain of events that will drastically alter the original Trek time-line as fans and casual general audiences knew it, and could possibly jeopardize the chance of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) to become the hero that fans remember him being in the original series.
As an adrenaline fueled summer thrill ride, the film works very well, packing all the action that a 21st century can buy, and a mostly well rounded cast keeps you invested. Zachary Quinto in particular is a bullseye casting choice to be the new Spock. True he doesn't sound like Leonard Nimoy (who stars as "Spock Prime"), but he looks almost exactly like a younger Leonard Nimoy and he captures the general personality of Spock so well that you don't really care that he lacks Nimoy's distinctively deep, gravelly voice.
However there are some things holding the film back from true greatness. As another critic pointed out (more than several others I'll bet), the young Spock leaving the young Kirk marooned on the ice planet (a reference to Hoth in the Empire Strikes Back) would undoubtedly have landed the Vulcan science officer in all kinds of hot water, even if Kirk was a pain in the ass to deal with. Then there is another matter - Kirk becoming Captain without logging in any actual pre-captaincy hours. I can believe that Kirk was a trouble making brat who then grew up to be an angry young man so drunk on his own arrogance and self-pity that he just doesn't care who he offends or who he hurts, and I can even believe that Kirk and Spock initially disliked each other when they first met, but Kirk becoming a Captain when he hadn't even logged in any real work hours is a little too much to swallow. This is the kind of writing that gives fan fiction a bad name. Does Starfleet have no command structure? Surely there must have been older, more experienced officers just waiting to get the green-light for captaincy. We can only speculate as to how JJ Abrams will address this in the sequel.
On the whole an entertaining venture, but will probably play better for casual moviegoers than die hard Star Trek fans.