The needs of the money outweigh the needs of the true fans

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2009)

***First let me say this review contains big whopping spoilers***
I've barely ever given an opinion on films (or anything else for that matter) but this film bothered me so much I felt compelled to.
I have always been a big fan of the franchise and throughout the build up to the release of this movie effort I had a snaking suspicion that this film would not be as good as it's predecessors but after seeing the ratings and some of the other reviews I was very mistakenly optimistic about it.
The Good Direction - 9/10 action packed and great tension levels. VFX - 10/10 best effects I've ever seen in a film Acting 9/10 Great job by all except Wynonna Ryder whose acting didn't invest me in her character to care when it was killed off. Casting - 9/10 Good fits for the roles with the exception of Uhura who has a very strong American accent , the original idea behind the character was that she was from the USA - united states of Africa which would be equally as powerful as anywhere else in the world, a more African actress would have been more suitable and not a Disney African.
The Bad (spoilers here) Plot - 2/10 A 1-dimensional villain wants tit for tat revenge by destroying the united federation of planets because Spock probably destroyed Romulus? Why do they keep using this type of plot when the best plots are the ones that challenge the audience into new ways of thinking? i.e The City on the Edge of Forever, Mirror, Mirror, Amok Time and The Devil in the Dark. I don't think the star trek formula was broken until they started overusing the space battle formula.
I thought the comedy in the film was too abundant and weak; apart from the kobayashi maru scene nothing was all that funny. Although comedy is a part of star trek it was usually witty dialog and usually is used in moderation to balance the seriousness. Not in this case it ruined the pacing of the film. By the time Scotty who was typically the comic relief character arrives on screen it was like pouring more milk into some already very milky tea. And why did Scotty have a jar-jar binx type monkey sidekick? The ignorant audience members next to me thought the incomprehensible meeps and beeps amusing but I didn't see the point of it here.
The scriptwriter thought they had license to do whatever they want with the star trek universe. Huge plot changes with very little payoff and I think it is going to be needlessly hard for anyone to write a follow up. If they wanted to kick start this franchise all they managed to do was kick it while it was down. I can understand getting a new more casual audience into the fandom with a simple plot but this plot is way too dumbed down and isolates the hard core fan too much. I was not used to seeing Leonard Nimoy in such a bad plot. My main plot gripes. - How does a crazy miner get the resources to mount such an unstoppable attack on starfleet? - The implausible odds of Kirk and old Spcok both being marooned in the same very random ice cave together - Why does the villain need and elaborate black hole drill to destroy a planet when everyone knows a starship can do the same job with one shot in mere seconds? - A cadet can't suddenly become a captain, it takes thousands of hours of experience before you can do anything in life. - Mocking Chekov for his inability for not being able to pronounce his V's repeatedly in the space of 2 minutes is just plain racist - Everyone suddenly wants into Uhuras knickers. - McCoy who always flew by shuttle as he feared the matter transporter now hates shuttle craft, - It should not have taken less than a minute to make spock fly off the handle - Capt. Pike has no plot development and it is not determined why he had the eel put in him or what the payoff was - McCoy and Spock being in strong agreement, generally they are polar opposites where Spock is logic, mc coy is emotion and Kirk is the middle ground.
Music - 2/10 not even close to the Alexander courage theme, and not epic enough a theme to convey the scale of the enterprise and its mission Also Sabotage by the Beastie Boys was completely out of place in its scene and a film set in the 23rd century. Props and Sets - 2/10 Although nice and shiny there ship lacks functionality, I didn't like the big dome in the middle of the transporter for no reason, the new phasers, the ship to ship communication with the wrong viewing aspect ratio, and voice recognition was a far fetched novelty that was used in a show at the end of star treks run, There was also 21st century product placement for Budweiser and Nokia? wtf?
I guess the needs of the money outweigh the needs of the few