A Disappointing Bunch of Balderdash for This Fan

Rating: 4/10 (22 September 2013)

As a life-long fan of the original and most of the sequels, this prequel was a disappointment. There were too many convenient plot twists that were poorly tied to the original series. If you're going to try to attract the original viewers, you'd jolly well better not {SPOILERS} claim that Tribbles were a known commodity before having Trouble with the Quadratiticalie; nor should you give Khan far more strength and recuperative power than he will have twenty years hence. Your killing of Captain Pike when he, in this generation, should be paralyzed and in a wheelchair is a problem, as is Spock's uncharacteristic tear and Scotty's uncharacteristic alien assistant. Action scenes that involve hurtling through space like a missile to hit the needle in a haystack, or fights aboard multiple flying vessels, are just stupid. Hey, JJ: Star Trek has action, but it is also cerebral (City on the Edge of Tomorrow?) and is not, thank God, a Bruce Willis/Rambo exercise in the ridiculous. That said, solid performances throughout by a fine list of actors.