Not For A Trek Fan

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2013)

Been watching Star Trek since the original films were released in the 80's, I missed the original TV series & never really got into them but the movies captured my imagination more than any other sci-fi could. The TV series, Next Generation, Deep Space, Voyager built the Star Trek I know today. Why don't modern productions expand on that with so many great possibilities, species 8472, Borg in decline, dominion, war across the federation etc... etc.. which brings me to, Into Darkness.
Spoiler ALERT !! Star Trek into Darkness is a re-imagining of Star Trek II - Wrath of Khan. Not a very good one if you follow Trek lore. There are parts of this movie that are visually pleasing & some character development that is a welcome change to the first movie but that accounts for the positive aspects.
Problems with this movie: Scotty is the Jar Jar Binks of the new Star Trek. His character is basically a stand up comedian stumbling around the movie ruining the credibility of all the villains & climatic scenes in the movie. How the hell does Scotty manage to simply fly into the top secret ship without their sensors picking him up as an intruder. They do use sensors don't they? How is he able to freely roam the enemy ship with the top brass of Starfleet commanding?? Then he powers down their power systems with no one on board having a clue, where is their chief engineer???? This whole sequence breaks the movie in my opinion. Very similar on the crapometer to the scene when 6yr old Anakin Skywalker jumps in the fighter & destroys a whole space station by sheer fluke in Phatom Menance. Action-Adventure turns to comedy.
Kirk is portrayed as an essentially wreck less idiot that would never command a star ship in any other series. Not to mention he is rewarded for his stupidity. He is lacking any of the requirements of an actual captain in starfleet in terms of decision making & maturity. If his rank were ensign he would be kicked out of Starfleet for the ideas he comes up with but in the movie he is rewarded over & over again. The one moment that can make this movie, the scene where he dies saving the crew which is carbon copy of ST2 but is reversed (Spock dies in that one) the emotional connection is there...that is until Bones has a sudden inspirational moment minutes before the movie ends & ends up saving Kirk.. boom movie is just typical happy ending garbage.. lets warp to the next dodgy adventure!! Spock's character also destroys his own back story completely by showing emotions throughout the movie. He gets angry, he still has a girlfriend despite his so called-lack of emotions which in itself is down right crazy (Girlfriends demand emotions!). Spock also contacts his other self from the original universe to break the temporal prime directive, how logical!!!!!!!!!!!! I accept this movie as an alternate timeline flirt but it could have easily been made as a 2 part episode in any of the TV series and barely worth making a movie out of it.
If this is the best that can be created for 180 million, JJ Abrams will be better suited to making Star Wars movies, at least all those wacky ideas can fit into that universe better than the trek one. Star Trek was never meant to be an illogical-Transformer'ish action ride mixed with stupid humor for a wide audience. It is meant for true sci-fi fans.
It would only take some smart editing to change this movie to make it solid for trek fans but it's the directors overall vision will hamper any proper revival of Star Trek in my eyes. He has the wrong vision.