Wonderful Star Trek movie that any fan, old or new, should watch!

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2013)

I felt the need to write an honest (spoiler-free) review for this movie as I see a lot of hate for it. I'm a fan of yesterdays Trek; Shater/Nimoy, Picard, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise I absolutely love the old Star Trek universe. Coming into the first film in 2009 I was very open minded about it as I am a true Star Trek fan (I even went to my first convention this year in Philadelphia) and will watch the films regardless of them replacing the original actors. Although the 2009 film was a pretty good film and I agreed with the new cast, it did not satisfy my liking in rebooting the franchise. I wasn't crazy about the storyline and overall the film just fell a bit short of what I thought it should have been. Despite the negatives, I still enjoyed the 2009 film. With that being said, I absolutely had to see the sequel "Into Darkness". Today I went on to the U.S. release of ST:ID. I have to say, the entire movie was extremely engaging from beginning to end! There is not one second where I ever sat back and was disgusted or bored with any part of the movie. J.J. Abrams stepped up his game and delivered a true Star Trek movie this time around that should please fans both old and new!
ST:ID takes place in the near future after the events of the 2009 film. Captain Kirk is now commanding the Enterprise and adventuring when a new enemy threatens the entire existence of Starfleet Command. I have to say as a fan there is not enough good things I can say about this film. The storyline, characters, even the sound effects on the bridge, it pays great homage to the Star Trek of yesterday while still being a fresh, new film. From beginning to end, we see plenty of Star Trek goodness. Lot's of starfleet command, meetings with admirals, a scene where a tribble is involved in some medical experiments, and even a very awesome scene where we see models of the first warp-capable ship from "Star Trek: First Contact" and the NX- 01 Enterprise from "Star Trek Enterprise" (a wonderful Easter egg/cameo for any real Star Trek fan). Also, not a spoiler, but we get a brief scene with the legendary one and only Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock again! Lastly we see some other nice background stories finally started/told as well, like Carol Marcus, Kirks former lover from "The Wrath of Khan".
One thing I absolutely loved about this film was the fact that it is going back to the "story telling" roots of Star Trek. This movie has almost the perfect blend of stunning CGI while still having those classic one on one conversations between characters. J.J. Abrams camera work was also much better. Less moving/wobbling camera effects, less off-centered camera angles, and dare I say... much less lens flares! The villain was also much better this time. Instead of a ridiculous looking, angry, tattooed Romulan (that I have sadly say poorly tied in with the Star Trek universe), we get a very sinister, mysterious, and menacing villain. Without spoiling the movie I will say old school Star Trek fans will be pleased to know who he is! This is easily in the top two best Star Trek films of all time. One of the very few, very minor pet peeves I had with this film which is why I didn't give it a 10 star rating is this. Mr. Scott and Chekov (among others) had relatively awkward/strange roles in the film that I won't spoil. To put it in other words, there was just a very strange balance of on-screen time for characters at times which is why I docked one star from this review. My second main reason is, although the story was good, I think it borrowed just a bit too much from another classic Star Trek movie who's name I will not say. These minor pet peeves of mine, however, are very small and easily tolerated. The rest of the film was excellent and definitely worth the price of admission.
Overall this was an excellent Star Trek film. Whether you are a newcomer to Star Trek, an old schooler, or something in between, I think this movie has something to make everyone happy. Without getting into details, many old school fans who claim they are "true fans" of ST bash this movie greatly. I will say as a fan myself there is absolutely nothing wrong with J.J. Abrams, the new Star Trek universe, or any other parts of it. This is a great film and if you give the new cast a chance and sit back and enjoy the film, I promise you will like it!