Star Trek Reboot was a Deal Breaker :(

Rating: 1/10 (2 June 2011)

Star Trek I should have been sped up and edited. Star Trek II showed the cunningness of Kirk and the sacrifice of individuals. Star Trek III talked about loyalty to friends, those friends closer than family. Star Trek IV was just plain cool and a bit funny. Star Trek V taught me that I need my pain. Star Trek VI showed the length to which friends go to help friends. The Original Series was best at drawing from very human source material, and exceeded the status of awesomeness when the three best friends that anyone ever had did it together. The Reboot lacked all of this, but most of all, it lacked heart.
I went in totally trailer-blind, so the Star Trek Reboot seemed exciting: To see the exact steps Kirk took to beat the Kobayashi Maru; To see just how Kirk became the youngest captain in Star Fleet history; I was genuinely curious to see just how that happened – to learn how one of the galaxies best strategists cut his teeth. I imagined Kirk played Kobi Maru calculated - like a tense poker hand - feigning a little sweat. Rather, he did a Cool Hand Luke and was all calm and nonchalant. (At least Luke was bluffing and there was a chance to lose.) The Kirk reboot was eating an apple! Ack! What reasonable outcome could he expect than to be expelled?
Yes, Star Trek needed a new breath of life. The TOS actors should not do another film, but Paramount and Gene Roddenberry's ghost should not have allowed that travesty. (I don't blame you, Gene.) The Reason Why: I spent my youth watching TOS, really came to appreciate the camaraderie of all the characters, including helmsmen, and genuinely enjoyed The Next Generation also. What the Reboot did was take 40+ years of history (1966 till present) and threw it out the window – completely erased my knowledge of a fictional universe and said, "Thanks for your money. Now it is time to go." My pop knowledge of Mirror, Mirror, The Naked Now, The Apple and all those hours watching premier episodes of TNG – it is all irrelevant. It does not exist. Thus, they do not respect us and the agreement that was in place. They create stories within certain guidelines, and we'll believe them.
What the reboot did was break the contract that existed between the Star Trek franchise and every self-respecting fan of good, quality writing. By changing the time line, none of the stories that were written 40 years ago mean a thing. By changing the time line, they stole the soul, the essence of the Captain Kirk everyone knew – one that grew up with his father as a guiding influence to join Star Fleet, who had and lost a brother, who may have handled the Kobayashi Maru with real poise (now we will never know) – and turned him into a joke. I really wanted to see how the Kobi Maru happened, and not some sloppy excuse by a weak writer who can call upon "alternate realities" to get away with anything.Very simply, the "writers" (and, yeah, I have to put that in quotation marks) took the super easy road and hacked out this... less than average movie.
To me, I do not give the reboot any credit to qualify as a Star Trek movie. More than anything, it was just a movie that happened to have some familiar names. If the Trekies accept it into the chronicles, then they can say good-bye to Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Mr. Data, and the whole of the Enterprise-D. Given such a loose and fast story, nothing is safe to take for granted. And that is too bad. They burned down the library and threw away the reel-to-reel tapes for a quick buck, for a director who happened to be on a hot streak and for writers who wrote Xena: Warrior Princess episodes! Ack! I like the classics, but look forward to new stories. I did not mind that this reboot pre-dated the whole series. Learning how Kirk became the youngest captain was a new story to all of us. But they absolutely melted and destroyed any semblance of TOS. TNG, DS9, Voyager – all gone.
What is worse about the reboot is that I went into it for some reassurance. For a message that said, even though the world is changing, here is something that is rock solid. Instead, they pulled the rug right out from under everyone and said, "Ta da! Here is a malformed ash tray that a high school freshman could write."
Clinging to the past isn't always healthy, but in this case, simply put, "Old Star Trek – Good. New Star Trek – Bad." IMDb does not allow for zero stars. Too bad since that is my assessment of those folks riding the coat tails of others. Star Trek V taught me I need my pain. It makes me who I am. So, sure I am a bit disappointed, but out of respect to Star Trek V, and all the other good work out there, it helped/inspired me to write this review and I hope this particular view can help others gain their own perspective.