Despicable strip-mining of cultural icon

Rating: 1/10 (20 May 2009)

Arrogance, ignorance and disrespect are writ large in this abominable film which, with its cynical use of time-travel, does two unforgivable things.
In one fell swoop it destroys all other Star Trek stories and histories (apart from the predated last TV series Enterprise). IT ALL NEVER HAPPENED...nada...zip...niente...all absolutely and completely and irrevocably nullified.
And having thus performed genocide, from here on in it allows this cabal of contemptuous filmmakers to commit further evil against the Star Trek characters and their universe, totally unfettered by Star Trek, as we know it. The Star Trek they are cannibalising only continues to exist today because devoted fans have - for over forty years - lovingly burnished and enhanced the patina of this pop culture treasure.
Within the real Star Trek universe, respect for the time-line is a key ethical principle for the Federation and its officers. The forces that have brought the world this film are unburdened by ethics of any kind. It is not surprising then, to find that while they use time-travel to sack, rape and pillage Star Trek, they are unwilling or unable to carry it out to its logical conclusions.
At the very least, from the moment of the destruction of Vulcan (in itself a breathtaking and staggering insolence by the filmmakers), Ambassador Spock, Nero and their ships would have ceased to exist in the current time-line because the future events that led to their being there would not have occurred. No planet Vulcan, no Vulcan Science Academy, no Spock's ship with its enormous load of 'red matter', no failed rescue mission for Ambassador Spock, no avenging Nero, no ridiculous black hole/wormhole to the time and place of Kirk's birth etc.
This is not a parallel universe story. This is a changed timeline. Although the Temporal Prime Directive is still hundreds of years hence in the Star Trek canon, this is exactly what it seeks to prevent.
So it's all a con. This is not Star Trek. A bunch of bully-boys have invaded the playing field, rewritten the rules of the game to suit themselves and then refused to even abide by their own rules. On the back of the commercial success of this movie, they will continue to do what they please, churning out movies in their new franchise, but it won't be Star Trek. They don't know what made Star Trek great and they are therefore doomed to twist and distort its corpse until it becomes obvious to all who care to think about that it's dead and lifeless and that this movie killed it.