Good Popcorn Movie, Bad for Trekies

Rating: 5/10 (12 May 2009)

The trailer said it all. "This ain't your parents Star Trek"
First the Good:
The Special Effects were very good, lots of action, a few teary moments along with some laughs. Karl Urban was by far the most convincing rendition of the original characters, Scotty and Sulu were also very good adaptations and to those three actors they have my thanks.
What was also very good in my opinion, was the first 3 minutes of the movie including the intro music into the Movie Title. All of that captures me every time I watch it. Unfortunately I turn the movie off after that.
Now the Bad: There were many things that were not consistent with the original story, such as certain physical impossibilities in the original story that are now possible in the new installment. Also certain relationships that didn't exist before that now exist and feel a little bit abnormal. For example, love interests that would not make sense before, all of a sudden are shoved in our faces as if it is plausible.
J.J. Abrams fixed all of these by implementing in the plot an alternate Universe, so this movie didn't have to follow anything the original series or the movie told us, which in my opinion ruins it all. It makes all the episodes and movies including all the variations are now somehow obsolete according to the new plot line.
I felt like that was extremely cheap, like someone had a good idea that wasn't supported by the already existing mythology of Star Trek, so they created this ridiculous parallel universe thing to make it happen.
There are many goofs in this film, too many to go over but the one that was sooooo obvious to me and only JJ Abrams can overlook in the editing room is the height difference between Old Spock and Young Spock. In one particular scene they stand in front of each other and Leonard Nimoy is a good 2 feet higher then young Spock. No Parallel plot line can fix that crap.
JJ Abrams is cheap. All his movies are basically tricks. He keeps the entire plot line of all his movies secret, makes a compelling trailer or two, and then on opening night.... the Movie sucks. Look at his filmography, most if not all of his movies were sold just like that. I sometimes say in my reviews that certain director can do no wrong. Well JJ Abrams can do no RIGHT!
I give it a 5 because all in all it was a very entertaining movie, and the opening scene was great. It is not a 6,7,8,9,or 10 like it should be, because of the cheap Hollywood-esk plot line.
Like the subject line states: Good Popcorn Movie, Bad for Trekkies I won't be buying this on DVD.