Worth a look...especially if you're not already a Trekker

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2009)

The best job of casting they did in this movie was Karl Urban. He was more than convincing as Dr. McCoy. He had the mannerisms and delivery of classic "Bones" lines down pat. I found Zachary Quinto surprisingly adequate as Spock, though that is the best I can say for him. I found Chris Pine's Kirk very uninspired and Eric Bana's portrayal of the villain, Nero, surprisingly flat for an actor of his caliber. The only other bright spot amongst the cast was Simon Pegg as Scotty. While his screen time was severely lacking, when he was on screen he stole the spotlight with his masterfully delivered comedic lines.
While overall, I did enjoy the movie, I felt like the writing was horribly lazy. Using time travel to create a completely different timeline where any kind of continuity could be ignored is a slap in the face to all those writers that came before Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and established the wealth of material we consider the Star Trek mythos. For someone completely unfamiliar with the Star Trek franchise, this could be a very enjoyable diversion, but for those who are truly fans of the universe Gene Roddenberry envisioned, this movie is cheap gimmick to re-image Star Trek, much the way Battlestar Galactica was re-imaged, but without the quality of writing of which the latter benefited.