They stole so much, they might get sued.

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2010)

Now I am not a serious Trekkie, I just watched every trek there was, (excluding most of "Voyager" which was too painful). As a true consumer of the franchise, I went in there, no expectations, and got out in a state of weirdness...
I can be incredibly critical of the movie. Especially the writing. Plot, logic, ethics, physics, time, space, they all are so full of holes you barely see the cheese.
**** HERE BE SPOILERS ****
I hope you don't need federation's advanced morality not to maroon someone you simply disagree with on a dangerous freezing planet to be eaten by monsters. It something you cannot do in Star Trek and reality. Having Bones say "... throwing out Kirk was probably all right" is just a dumb writer ducking from the shoe. Whilst pretty, the visuals, cg and even their styles are completely and utterly stolen from other SciFi movies and series. Why have Spock fly around in a StarWars glider? It even *sounded* and fired like a Star Wars glider! Why take away particle beams? Not fast enough?? What is this fluttering light they are flying through? Warp speed in Star Trek is just fast movement and was always depicted as such. Remember stars gliding by? Why these pointless replacements?? I for one have seen too many flickering-light-tunnels already. Detail. OK. But why make a trek movie with star wars visuals, weapons, and sounds? Laziness I guess. Why are future torpedoes intercept able by fire from little energy blasts? I mean that would be much easier with a beam weapon wouldn't it? The villains (yes its the Romulans again, Klingons are buddies, remember?) get sucked into the past, laze around for 20 something years in their gorgeously powerful spider-style "mining ship" playing poker, the last three years of it cradling their cataclysmic stockpile of planet destroying "red matter", occasionally ripping whole fleets of contemporary ships. And guess what... yes! You are right.
They manage to fail.
The new Romulans having changed from sly devious scheming lanky bastards into rather big, beafy and stupid hulks( I guess they were hit by the same thing as the Klingons, and they don't talk about it...) are only a distraction, Nero being a mockery of a Khan for Spock instead of Kirk. If you search for ingenuity or new ideas in the film, well, you can find some, I'll give a hint later.... ranting on.. where was I? right, villain.. well, he is more of a side plot, a narrative device, if you will, that allows them all to be really really heroic in kicking his ass. At the very least you couldn't get Nero by just ramming his ship with yours. I mean, that even THAT didn't work really makes the tension tangible. It was the last ace up Picard's sleeve! (<-Sarcasm). They get him by sneaking up at his ship and stabbing him in the back. Morse code may be a classic wallbanger, but hide and seek never gets old.
Story depth and mystery like in Battlestar Galactica? Nowhere to be seen.
The end leaves a potential for endless amounts of new sequels. Bless you, time travel trouser theory.
Well the reason I gave this any stars: The filming itself isn't it. Hollywood has, over recent years, been hit by an epidemic of compulsive tremor that hit cutters and cameramen right where it hurt. (meaning the eyes and heads of the audience). Old Star Trek productions looked hilarious because people tried to jump around faking a shaking ship. Nowadays you can laugh about examples of trembling camera-work and trigger happy cutters. Sometimes it might be an appropriate dramatic device, but especially in Transformers (pick a number) and this movie they sometimes forget to calm them down, steady their hand and switch off the tazer in their pants for just a moment. It is by far not as bad as in transformers, actually it is much funnier because for some scenes it is so inappropriate.
Why then see this crap? Because of the most important thing they stole. Because the characters is what makes Star Trek feeling like actual Star Trek. And that part was done masterfully. Cast and script range from the deep to the hilarious and interact extremely well. The family feeling at the bridge (once the script somehow got them there together (seriously, just "beam us up scotty" might have been more appropriate)), the dialogs the chemistry, all perfect. You don't see character development as such, I would rather describe it as putting various pieces of characters and actors together on screen forming a critical mass and going nuclear. I have never seen a remake with so many puns and allusions pointing at its original material. It is so much fun to experience this movie triggering various memories of old, it dwarfs all the negative points. From Spock's eyebrow("fascinating".) over Bones's ranting("that pointy eared hobgoblin") to Kirks Captain Chair Thinking Pose(tm), it is all there and also a shovelful of new goodies.
Wanna see a new-style action packed movie for the kids combined with a joyful cocky space ride with Jim, Spock, Scotty and Bones where Spock scores the chick? Grab a beer and the hell go see this movie!