14 Reasons Why The New "Star Trek" Is Most Illogical

Rating: 3/10 (20 May 2009)

People must be getting pretty desperate for good movies if they like this film. I thought Spock and Scotty were pretty good, and the special effects were great, but the plot ruins it. (And I'm no Trekkie. I just like films that make sense.) The plot has so many contradictions and is based on so many coincidences that you'd have to turn off your brain to like it--and I'm not talking willing suspension of disbelief here, I'm talking full cranial lobotomy. The only way it's good is in comparison to recent stinkers--Pirates of the Caribbean2&3, Spidey3, etc.
Here's a list of the terrible plot elements:
1. Nero's ship exiting the black hole right where Kirk's father's ship is. OK, coincidences happen, so one coincidence is acceptable in any film, so let's give them one pass. However, it's pretty convenient that in all the vastness of space, Nero, who wants to avenge Spock's failure to save Romulus, comes out of the black hole right where the father of Spock's best friend is located.
2. On 5 different occasions, Kirk almost dies by nearly falling off a ledge: 1st kid Kirk and the car ride; 2nd when the parachute almost pulls him off the drilling platform; 3rd when the Romulan tries to stomp him off the platform; 4th when he doesn't quite make a jump in Nero's ship; 5th when the Romulan picks him up, he shoots the Romulan, and he falls right back down.
3. Nero never warns Romulus that their star will explode! The great thing about going back in time is that you can prevent terrible things from happening in the future, right? You'd think the 1st thing Nero would do after going back in time is fly to Romulus and warn them of the danger, but no! After blowing up the Kelvin, Nero just waits there for 25 years for Spock to arrive. You'd think that just once during those 25 years he might think, "Hey, this is pretty dumb. I'm waiting here to get back at Spock for letting my planet blow up. Maybe instead of sitting here, I'll fly over and warn everybody. Then, I'll have nothing to be mad about!"
4. Kirk's warning Captain Pike that they're flying into a trap serves no purpose. Kirk warns Pike that Vulcan isn't encountering a natural disaster but is being attacked by an alien ship. The problem is that by the time Pike's convinced, they've already at Vulcan and they get attacked anyway.
5. Pike shouldn't have to be warned anyway. Pike did his dissertation on the battle that destroyed the Kelvin. He'd certainly come to the same conclusion that Kirk does.
6. After Pike is captured, Kirk immediately reverses himself and goes against the advice he gave Pike. In the scene just referred to, Kirk tells Pike that they will certainly be destroyed if they take on the alien ship that destroyed the Kelvin. A few scenes later, Kirk knows that his suspicions were right. However, at this point, Kirk now strangely doesn't heed his own warnings that attacking Nero's ship means certain death and argues so strongly with Spock in support of attacking Nero's ship that Spock has him ejected from the Enterprise.
7. Why don't the Vulcans attack the space drill themselves?
8. After young Spock sends Kirk to Vulcan's ice moon in an escape pod, Kirk just happens to land within a mile of where old Spock's ice cave is. Come on! We're talking about an entire moon here! That's like an astronaut ejecting from the InternationalSpaceStation (not in the movie; the one that's orbiting the earth) and landing a mile from where his mother lives.
9. There's no reason Nero wouldn't have kept Spock in his own ship in the 1st place. It seems like Spock would've had a pretty good view of Vulcan from Nero's ship and Nero would've had the fun of laughing at him too. Plus, Nero wouldn't have to worry about old Spock foiling his plans later on. (Maybe this one can be ignored. We've already established that Nero is a complete idiot.)
10. Spock's ice cave just happens to be next to where Scotty is stationed. Not only does Kirk land right next to old Spock but they seem to be a short walk from where Scotty is. In fact, if old Spock had done some hiking before meeting Kirk, he would've discovered Scotty on his own, which would have allowed him to warn Vulcan of Nero's attack.
11. Kirk is able to cause Spock to lose his cool in about a half minute. Spock must not have done very well on the Kobiyashimaru test. That test is meant to gauge your ability to make good decisions under stress. Well, we should be glad that Spock didn't have command under combat. He couldn't even withstand somebody making fun of his mother. It's strange that the Spock in the series virtually never loses his cool, but when it serves the purposes of the plot, Kirk is able to get him to lose it instantly.
12. No one is guarding Spock's tiny ship in the hangar of Nero's ship. This is just slight error on Nero's part, given that within Spock's ship is a weapon that can destroy planets. You'd think Nero would post at least a few men there to defend this valuable asset. Nope. I guess his men had better things to do.
13. There's no reason for Nero to want to destroy earth. His "beaf" is with Spock, not anyone on earth.
14. Nero's ship is ridiculously powerful. Does it really makes sense that a mining vessel from the future can take out a starfleet?
Oh yeah, one more: why does Nero hate Spock anyway? He was trying to save Romulus, right?
People need to expect more from movies or we'll keep getting crap like this!