A much needed reboot of the franchise!

Rating: 9/10 (7 May 2009)

Being a confirmed Trekker who can remember watching the original series the first time around and who can spot non-canon fodder from a parsec away, I went into the cinema more than a little skeptical after having watched all the trailers until I could quote the entire sequence of each one. In the past, I have been almost disenfranchised by the revisionists who scripted First Contact. So I expected some more of the same with this movie. Wow! Was I ever surprised! What J.J. Abrams did was simply awesome! From the opening scenes, he has given the Star Trek Franchise a much needed reboot. Let's face it, Star Trek had just about run it's course and was running out of steam. To continue on and remain in canon was getting quite hard for the writers. Just look at First Contact for instance, where they relocated Zefram Cochrane from Alpha Centauri to Earth. Now, by going back to the roots of Star Trek and introducing an old (old at least by Star Trek standards) plot twist, we see new life breathed into our Star Trek universe! Thanks to the genius of this new twist, we can start again with familiar characters, but with a whole new universe and a different beginning, setting down new canon that doesn't have to be in conflict with the old canon.
My only concern is that with this fresh new beginning that the guardians of the Star Trek franchise stay away from the inconsistencies that was getting harder and harder to deal with in the older Star Trek universe. It is unfortunate that they overlooked a big one in this movie: no military or paramilitary service such as Star Fleet would promote straight out of their Academy a cadet, no matter how promising, straight into the captaincy of the flagship of the fleet! Shame on you, Mr. Abrams. You should have known better than this. Not only that, but you have just robbed us of the opportunity of seeing young Mr. Kirk grow and develop even further as he worked his way up the chain of command.
I would like to see in the coming sequels major development of the relationship between Spock and Uhura. I always thought it was sad that Spock never got to have a serious romance. Here is a great chance for Star Trek to once again make some of that social comment that some people think is missing in today's Star Trek, by exploring interracial relationships. In this case, with Zoe Saldana, who is a black woman and human, and Spock, who is white and an alien, it can become a two-edged sword! I would also like to see more screen time for McCoy in the future. Karl Urban rocks as the new McCoy! Chekov and Sulu should receive more attention and chances for career advancement in the coming sequels in the same way we saw Data and La Forge develop in character and advance in rank over time. And get Scotty out of that damned chemical factory and into a proper Engineering Section.