What happened to good screen writing ?

Rating: 3/10 (19 May 2013)

I am a long-term Trekkie and went into this movie fairly open-minded and full of expectation, perfectly seeing the need to adapt a franchise to the taste of a modern audience. It didn't disturb me either that the movie was shown in 3D, although I don't really consider it a big plus as the storytelling remains the most important aspect of a movie for me.
I don't take offense of the many action scenes and relatively violent fight sequences that are not very "Star Trek" like, but which are probably needed to appeal to a younger audience.
Unfortunately, it was the storytelling that disappointed me most. The plot was awfully unimaginative by basically just retelling "The Wrath of Khan" with a few plot parameters changed. What's even worse is the dialog that, as other reviewers pointed out, is at times hideously cheesy and other times just doesn't fit into the Star Trek canon ("For the love of God",...).
At one point Spock tells the villain that he needs to be stopped because otherwise he would kill anybody whom he considers "less than superior", a non-expression (superior compared to whom?) that a logically reasoning character like Spock would never use. At other times characters use replaceable standard-phrases that you could find in any B-movie and that are unintentionally funny ("It's good to have a family", "Because you are my friend, Spock.", "Let's go after the bastard")
Overall, it is one of the worst screen writing that I have recently been subjected to.
What makes the weak story even more a pity is that the technical execution of the movie is good. The film seems to have had a really good art direction, with nice and imaginative settings and both stunning and believable visuals throughout the movie. Other technical aspects of the movie, like the editing our the score were top-notch as well.
Hence, with a better, more imaginative story, this could have really been an enjoyable, if not deep, movie. Sadly, as it is, I can not recommend it to any Trekkie.