Addressing people's qualms

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2009)

If you're new to the series or haven't seen the movie, please don't read this. You don't need to read Trekker nitpicking. (Unless you've read many of the "1 Star" reviews, in which case, go for it, because I heartily disagree with them.)
Regarding claims of plot holes and damage to the franchise, I feel the need to address these claims to show that it is not a difference in familiarity/appreciation with "good" Star Trek films that makes me appreciate this installment:
"Kirk discovered the Romulans!" That one was ruined a long time ago. Roughly around the time when the writers of the series decided that Romulans were Vulcans who refused to embrace Surak's reforms during the Time of Awakening. In other words, Vulcans knew about the Romulans. The Romulans probably didn't just disappear so that no one could find them. Both races obviously had warp capability, or at least the capability to explore as far as the distance to the other race. Do you think the Vulcans just forgot to mention them to the Federation when they joined? In all likelihood, I think that the Romulans probably brushed shoulders with Vulcans every once in a while, if only to growl and act treacherous. If humans and Vulcans could fly far enough to meet with each other, I find it really unlikely that they'd go so long without bumping into Romulans.
"Nero should have just warned the Romulans." In his 25 spare years he probably did that. And the Romulans probably had no need to do anything just yet, as the cataclysm wouldn't happen for about 130 years. (I wouldn't jump to do anything drastic based on some guy saying "In 130 years these dudes will be too slow to save you! Get mad and kill them!") Nope, it would probably be up to Nero both to help his own people in whatever way he could (and in doing so, very likely reveal to them that the Federation existed, so that they might initiate contact with the Federation much sooner) and then take revenge on the Federation. This would be particularly desirable if he was unable to go back to a version of his own time in which his family was still alive. (Being a miner, he probably doesn't have the know-how to figure out how to create a black hole guaranteed to drop him right back there.) So, kill the Federation it is.
"They made it into an action flick! Ships don't fight like that!" The only logical reason ships fought the way they did in the original series is that they didn't have the technology to produce good dogfights, and later just didn't want to risk copying Star Wars. Otherwise, they would be making the supposition that in the future, people will make incredibly expensive vessels, pack thousands of people on them, and rely on sheer power to defeat all threats to them. That's ridiculous. At worst, smart commanders would have a large, cumbersome ship that would deploy smaller, maneuverable ships that would strike out at the other vessel and its own defense ships, battleship/fighter style. The other alternative is to have the ships themselves be maneuverable. The traditional Star Trek "Let's hail them and see if they're willing to talk it out. OK they're not fire everything!!!" approach is really rather silly. Because not every ship can rely on being the flagship of the most powerful group of space travelers in order to win their fights. Other races would know that they were destined to lose these fights and desperately avoid them, an avenue which non-Federation races constantly refuse to take throughout the series.
"They used the oldest trick in the book to go back in time and AUUUGH EVERYTHING'S SO IMPLAUSIBLE!" Now, I can sympathize with disliking things that are implausible. But for the sake of entertainment, I sometimes let things go. Like when I watched STAR TREK IV.
Do you remember that one? When Spock was sitting on the bridge and suddenly decided, "Gee, we really need to go 300 years back in time. I bet we could do this by flying around the sun really fast. Let me do some math here... Yep! I checked guys, this works. Let's do it."
Really? REALLY? Don't you think that if time travel was that simple, someone else would have tried it? Don't you think that it would take more than 30 seconds to figure out correctly? Do you really think that Spock just happens to be miraculously smarter than every character on any series of the show, ever? (Aside from Q, maybe.) Time travel cannot be that easy, therefore plot holes are allowed in Star Trek. Accept it. If you want to complain about things, try the weather. There's plenty to get upset about there, and least then you won't be discouraging people from enjoying something great.
Also, almost every adventure movie ever relies on SOMETHING extremely unlikely happening. Kirk landing near Spock is not by any means the worst of them.