Gene Roddenberry is Rolling in his Grave

Rating: 3/10 (12 May 2009)

I'll start my review with the disclaimer that I am indeed a hardcore Star Trek fan. The Trekkie in me wanted to give this a rating of 0/10, but I gave it a 3/10 for a few reasons: Good acting, good special effect, good action.
If those things are what you look for in a movie like this, you'll probably rank it a lot higher! From a Trekkie point of view, this movie was awful! Even for a parallel universe (which is a cop-out), I have HUGE issues with the movie. Starting with plot holes and writing issues:
* When children tease other children, they do it to feel superior. It is an emotional thing to do. So the Vulcan children that were teasing Spock, trying to get him to show emotion were doing so out of emotion themselves.
* Sarek (Spock's father) was one of the most logical Vulcan's ever in Star Trek. I can't imagine any universe ever when Sarek would tell Spock it is okay to feel anger and the reason he married Amanda (Spock's mother) was because he loved her.
* Romulus was ultimately destroyed by a star that went supernova. The only star that could destroy Romulus by going supernova would be the star at the center of Romulus' system. If the mysterious "Red Matter" were placed in the star to prevent the supernova, Romulus would be without a star anyway and the planet would freeze and die. Beyond that, a black hole in the center of a solar system would eat all the planets in the system too, including Romulus. So the planet was doomed no matter what.
* Apparently none of the writers or set designers had ever watched an original episode of Star Trek or seen a schematic. The lattice structures and water pipes in the Enterprise were ridiculous. Likewise, the bridge was horrible. A turbo lift where it should be, but a second door that doesn't lead to a turbo lift, but out onto the ship! The bridge is at the top of the ship...you can't have a door that leads to the rest of the ship.
* According to canon, the Enterprise was commissioned in 2245 under the command of Robert April. This would have been when Kirk was 12 years old. April commanded the ship for 9 years before Pike took command in 2254. Surely the destruction of the Kelvin wouldn't have changed these facts! But in the movie, the Enterprise is brand new when Pike takes command.
* A cadet (Kirk) that had not yet graduated from the academy (that was on academic suspension no less) got a field commission to first officer!?
* The hearing at the end of the movie appears to happen days after Nero is defeated. Consequently, Kirk is given command of the Enterprise. So Star Fleet saw fit to promote Kirk from Cadet past Ensign, Lieutenant JG, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Cmdr and Commander straight to Captain and give him command of the Flag Ship of the Federation!? Kirk was born in 2233 and this movie most likely took place in 2254. That would make Kirk 21 when he takes command.
* According to canon, Spock was born in 2232, making him one year older than Kirk. Yet in this movie, Spock is a full fledged Commander at the age of 22.
* Romulans are not first seen until 2266 (TOS: "Balance of Terror"), yet everybody seems to recognize the Romulans as Romulans!
Those are just a few of the larger plot holes that I noted. Second, Star Trek has always been based on science. Warp drive, transporters, tractor beams, etc. They are all based on science. Beyond that, Star Trek science has rules just like real world science has rules. For example, there is a limit on Warp drive and there is a range on transporters. Here are a few of the science issues that I had:
* "Red Matter" – what is that all about? No explanation whatsoever. When it is placed in the center of a massive body (a planet, star, etc), it creates a singularity (black hole). A single dropyet the massive blob on Spock's ship is stable. And if it is stable because it is being suspended and not touching other matter, how is the hypodermic needle used to extract the red matter explained? At least antimatter has always been based on science. If it comes into contact with matter, the two annihilate each other (destructively). Hence the reason for antimatter containment chambers, warp core breaches, etc.
* Transporters have a range! In "Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country", Kirk and crew need to beam down to Khitomer to stop an assassination. Kirk asked if they are in transporter range and Spock says "not yet" and starts a countdown. They are well within the boundaries of the solar system at this point. In this new movie, Kirk and Scotty beam to the Enterprise from Delta Vega. The Enterprise was traveling at Warp 4, away from Delta Vega. That is roughly 100 times the speed of light: 18.6 million miles/sec or 67 billion miles/hour. If we assume Kirk was on the surface for 3 hours before he and Scotty beamed back to the Enterprise, the ship would be roughly 200 billion miles away from the planet. It is roughly 2.7 billion miles from Earth to Neptune (the outer limits of our Solar System). So they transported to a ship traveling at Warp 4 from a distance equal to almost 75 times the distance from Earth to Neptune. Oh, and earlier in the movie, they were having a hard time locking onto Kirk and Sulu because they were falling (not holding still).
I hope the world of Star Trek will quietly ignore this movie! Seemed to me like a simple excuse to try to shake the money tree once again.