So...the emotionless logician as romantic action here...that's 1 way of approaching it

Rating: 5/10 (1 December 2014)

In the unnecessary sequel of the unnecessary reboot, widely panned director J.J. Abrams and the guy who came up with the ending of "Lost" give us the Stoic science officer as the romantic (Uhura, really?) Schwarzenegger-esque action star. Meh. Like Syndrome said in "The Incredibles" when "everyone is super, then no one is super." The "Team of Rivals" logic falls apart, why then do you even need Kirk when Spock can negotiate with Khan and later beat the stuffing out of him on a futurist garbage truck? (So in the future garbage trucks fly but Kirk still uses an alarm clock to wake up between the alien women?). If Abraham doesn't stick enough to the logic, some of the actors stick too closely to the past especially Karl Urban who essentially does a comic's impression of DeForest Kelley. Simon Pegg flirts with the same problem with his "Scotty" but just narrowly avoids turning it into a caricature. Chris Pine does "Kirk" without Shatner's cheese factor but Jeremy Renner could have taken the character in a more interesting direction. Otherwise the actors make the characters their own particularly Zoe Saldana who brings a re-imagining to the originally flat Uhura character.
For Abrahams, the Enterprise crew clock in as stock players in the service of his superstar Benedict Cumberbatch. JJ actually films his introductory scene with a standing applause break lingering on his excellent cheekbones to the point of communicability. From there the camera never really moves off him and he enjoys several bouts of evil super-villain monologue-ing as the rest of the cast looks on admiringly. Maybe re-reboot the franchise and make Kahn and his crew of augments the good guy next time?
The plot remains familiar to fans and the action engages and entertains even when it makes little sense: the heavily damaged Enterprise loses engines and weapons but not artificial gravity, the Enterprise needs a huge crew of engineers but the ship one model more advanced can be full operated by one aging Star Fleet admiral, Kahn Rambo's an entire Klingon patrol with air support but...
Anyway, enough decent action and writing exist to carry the popcorn adventure through its running time. In short, it may be where many man have gone before but might be worth another visit.