Eh

Rating: 3/10 (20 May 2013)

I want to qualify my review by saying that I'm an old-school Trek fan. I also want to say that I didn't like the 2009 Abrams "Star Trek" movie very much, although I didn't absolutely hate it.
They managed to make the franchise even dumber and more ADD than the 2009 Trek movie.
Lots of action, pretty actors and actresses, and cool special effects. Those were the only real redeeming qualities of this movie.
Story and character motivation were severely lacking. A brief cameo appearance by an old-school Trek character is used to further the plot in the least subtle way; the character bonks the audience over the head with information about the antagonist, rather than the script leading us to the information.
Benedict Cumberbatch was severely underutilized as an actor. There was only one marginally good scene between Kirk and Cumberbatch's character in which he explains his motivations. Otherwise, the character was one-dimensional and was going through the action-packed motions from that point on with requisite snarling.
Overall, I hope J.J. Abrams gives up the Star Trek franchise when he makes the new Star Wars movie. He's taken all of the thinking out of Star Trek. While old Trek was never hardcore sci-fi, and sometimes was kinda cheesy, at least it had elements of politics, religion, and social issues.