Entertaining, too many flaws to ignore

Rating: 4/10 (16 May 2009)

I consider myself a star trek fan, and have seen most of TNG and all of DS9. I've seen bits of TOS, Voyager, and Enterprise, and most of the movies. I'm not a die-hard fanatic of the lore, though, so I don't mind that they sidestepped most of it for a reboot. It does bring up some interested questions, but I don't really mind that they didn't mention them or address them. They have other movies and possibly shows for that. However, outside of the franchise reboot, there are SO many problems that make this a plain bad movie.
1. Pike, an active starship captain, in the middle of Iowa recruiting...in a bar? Because that seems likely.
2. "Oh, all of our actually commissioned and graduated officers are off doing something else, *all* cadets, report for duty." Yeah, that happens in a well organized, established military organization. It would simply be chaos, and would never happen in a modern navy, let alone a Navy 200 years in the future.
3. Uhura and Spock. Completely unexplained. This doesn't need to happen, at all. And if they decided it needed to happen, why was it so ridiculously presented?
4. Pike "Looks like I've gotta leave the enterprise for the surefire trap. Spock, you're in charge. Stowaway Kirk, who hasn't actually graduated from the Academy yet, you're second in command. Yeah, existing senior bridge crew, you'll have to deal with it. There's now an immature 25 year old in charge."
5. Chekov "I'm a 17 year old genius! Also, I'm comic relief because Russians can't say the letter V, even 200+ years in the future! Get it?! I say W instead of V! Oh man, I'm hilarious and super smart! Oh, and also the most annoying person EVER!"
6. J.J. Abrams "Hey, I know what we can do! Let's start every third scene with the camera...sideways! That's SOOOO dramatic!"
7. Federation female cadets wear short skirts. That's right, the one loyalty to the original show was the T&A. You would think that J.J. Abrams would have realized that was more of a 1960's era thing than a 2260's era thing. Oh, and the Uhura strip down scene. Not that I mind, because she was very attractive, but it felt very canned and was simply an excuse to get a bit more T&A in before the action started.
8. Vulcans "We're an ancient and super advanced culture, both technologically and rationally. While our planet is being assaulted with a giant beam weapon, we're gonna hide out in a cave and meditate instead of doing something about it."
9. Spock "Kirk, you beat my program by cheating. I now have a giant personal grudge against you. Oh, and marooning you is the best solution. Don't argue with my logic, human. Have a good day." Later "Oh, I'm so mad at you Kirk! I'ma kill you!" Later "OK, Kirk, I was just kidding. Can I have my old job back?"
10. Scotty "I have a pointless comic relief sidekick. Isn't he cute!" (as an aside, I loved Simon Pegg here. But his sidekick was unnecessary and unexplained.)
11. Starfleet "Listen, Kirk, we all know you're fated to be a captain. Let's just skip the whole process where you graduate from the academy (and face charges of cheating, mind you), rise through the ranks, and earn your command. Nope, one successful mission is all it takes around here! Oh, and we'll give you our new flagship, too, because really, why wouldn't we!"
Need I go on? There are so many stupid stupid things in this movie that are simply BAD WRITING that have nothing to do with the star trek lore.