JJ Abrams reworks Star Trek 2

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2013)

Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) ignores the Prime Directive to save Spock (Zachary Quinto) on a mission. Uhura (Zoe Saldana) is relieved. After terrorist attacks killing Adm. Pike, Adm. Macus (Peter Weller) sends Kirk on a mission to kill renegade John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who has escaped to the Klingon homeworld Kronos. They are joined by weapons specialist Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) and a new type of photon torpedo despite objections from Scotty (Simon Pegg).
I appreciate the idea of reworking Star Trek 2 in this alternate universe. However if we are to compare the two, there are differences that don't shine a favorable light on this one. Whereas the 1982 original was operatic, poetic, and fun. This one is loud, lumbering, and dark. JJ Abrams must have expected the comparisons. This one is definitely flashier, and better looking. The CG sequences are awe inspiring like most of them today. We have advanced quite a ways.
The original was one of good versus evil. They were simple sides. This one, we're trying to use Khan, then we're fighting him. It's not as clean of a storyline. There was a lot of minor questionable things like.... Why hide Enterprise in the ocean? Why put the bodies in the photon torpedoes? How did they get back to Earth all of a sudden? They're all minor and ignorable. But it builds an uneasy sense that something's not right. My analogy is that the 1982 movie is a perfectly solved Rubik's Cube. This one JJ Abrams jumbled all the pieces, put glitter all over it, and photoshop the heck out of it.