'Decent' film IF you are not a fan of the real Star Trek franchise.

Rating: 7/10 (15 March 2012)

I had very high hopes for this film, but instead of giving us what they said they were going to, the origins of Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, Abrams and the writers decided to just throw 40 years of Star Trek cannon in the trash, and make up their own story.
I will agree that Star Trek needed to be 'updated' to bring in new fans... but what the writers did was cheated. Yes it would have been hard to write a 'prequel' to a story that has 40 years of history... but to just throw all that history and cannon away in the opening scenes of movie was just lazy and pathetic.
This was NOT a Star Trek movie, regardless of what the characters names may have been.
Then on top of that, there were many things about the film that I found very out of place or out right annoying. So many of the sets on the Enterprise looked like real life factories or breweries... turns out they are.
But most of all, I hated all the 'lens flare'. It's in almost every scene in the movie. Most directors do everything they can to AVOID lens flare and use it only as rare artistic touch.... it turns out that Abrams LOVES lens flares and actually had people shinning bright lights up into the cameras to create them when they wouldn't have been there naturally. I've come to see his love for lens flares in other films like 'Super 8'.
Setting my dislike of Abrams style, and the fact that he chose to simply ignore 40 years of Star Trek history, it's not a bad sic-fi/action film.... but it is NOT a Star Trek film and I doubt very much if I will bother seeing the sequel that is currently in the works. (or any other film by Abrams... can't stand his style of directing)