As someone who got into Star Trek recently

Rating: 5/10 (19 April 2020)

I can say I remembered this movie to be better. The first time I watched it, I had never seen anything Star Trek related. I only knew very few things about the lore and characters. At the time, I think I was pretty satisfied with my movie going experience, thinking it was a decent, fun action movie.
Now, I've watched the entirety of the original series, I've seen movies 1 to 6 of the original timeline, and I'm currently going through "the next generation".
I can say my opinion has changed.
I don't think this movie is awful, but it felt pretty disappointing. It's not bad, just very, very bland and predictable. It's a pure Hollywood product.
It certainly lacks that very specific vibe Star Trek usually has when it's done right. That "je ne sais quoi" which made the original cast work so well. Of course, there's the disadvantage of not having eighty episodes to build the relationships between the characters. It is obvious you can't make your characters quite as likeable in a two-hour or so runtime.
Kirk and Spock are also pretty different from the original show. It seems logical since this is a modern reinterpretation, they had to change some stuff along the way. Plus it's better that than having the actors trying too hard to be like Nimoy and Shatner, which could have been very forced. But once again, it does lack the charm of the original cast. However, I really liked karl Urban as McCoy, I think he really succeeds in acting like grumpy DeForest Kelley without it being forced. Also props to John Cho and Anton Yelchin (rest in peace) who were very good as Sulu and Chekov, and the rest of the cast who were very decent in my opinion.
I liked the first scene with the USS Kelvin though, It was a tense and exciting opener, and worked better than most of the action sequences that followed.
I know it's not entirely fair to compare the original show and this movie for many reasons, but even on its own, the movie lacks much in substance. I kind of felt disconnected from most of what happened, I very rarely felt the impact of the supposedly dramatic moments. I don't think it is such a bad idea to destroy Vulcan and kill Spock's mother, but it didn't shake me like it should have. And it's probably because a two-hour movie isn't enough to make us care about these characters. Maybe if they did it later in the series, idk.
It is a great mystery to me how the first Star Trek movie from 1979 is rated 6.4 on Imdb, it had much more personnality in my opinion.
The soundtrack was pretty cool though. The main theme for the movie is epic (but, I mean, coming from Michael Giacchino, it doesn't surprise me).
(PS. Everyone and their mother has already said it, but could you chill with the lens flares J.J.?)