Entertaining...but not perfect

Rating: 7/10 (21 August 2013)

The thing I didn't like about the first film (by JJ Abrams) was that I felt like I was missing out on a lot of jokes because all the Trekkies in the theater were laughing at various points of the movie that didn't seem funny at all to me. I'm not a Trekkie; I've seen the older movies and a few TV episodes, so I felt like I was witnessing a bunch of inside jokes, which seemed to be much of the first film.
This time around was much better. Abrams is done introducing his version of the new universe and gets down to storytelling, albeit not as effectively as he could have done.
From the original films, my favorite was Star Trek II. I loved Khan as a villain and I loved the sacrifice of Spock and I loved the space battles between the Enterprise and Reliant. So I was looking forward to this film.
I wasn't sure how Khan would do, played by a scrawny British guy, but Benedict does a fine job playing a more brains vs brawn Khan.
The problem with the film comes when you think about the plot too much... From the bombing in London onward, everything seems to happen simply as a plot device and without any real rationale behind it. I'm willing to believe that Khan couldn't get into the secret labs and had to coerce someone else to go in there and blow it up. But why would he personally attack the meeting and risk being killed or captured? Wouldn't history's smartest psychopath find a way to eliminate all those individuals in a more efficient way other than in a hovercar with laser cannons? Why would he teleport to the Klingon homeworld? Wouldn't he want to continue his war against Admiral Marcus...who was on earth? Again, this seemed like just a plot device so they could introduce the 72 special torpedoes and then the USS Vengeance.
I was hoping for a good space battle, but you'll notice that the Enterprise fires exactly ZERO phasers or torpedoes in this film. It just gets rocked by the Vengeance. It would have been more satisfying to see the two ships duke it out.
Anyway, plot holes and blatant plot devices aside, the film is good and does manage to make you care about the main characters and you do enjoy watching Khan really dominate his adversaries.
I just wish Abrams was a better storeteller. So much of this film depended on convenient plot devices that really aren't explained. For instance...Marcus could have had Khan doing covert operations on the Klingon homeworld or something, which would explain why he went there. You get the idea.
I also wish he would use regular filming techniques over the lens flare and the zoom-in blur effect...if I wanted to watch a home movie...I'd do just that.
This is a film worth seeing and paying money for.