Not a bad film, but...lacking.

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2013)

caution: spoilers Shall we begin.... The movie was fun, and I was entertained. Because I know Trek, certain plot twists and characters kept me entertained. I applaud JJ for misleading us in the trailer and misleading us in Benedict's character, and that is the ONLY reason this movie still had any surprises left for us. Well, and also not copying the original story and making it different, adding to the surprise. The trailer showed plenty, but left lots of room to be shocked. I did indeed like the plot, and I appreciate the changes made in order not to copy the original.
On the other side without going into lengthy ranting: plausibility factor thrown out the window, any form of logic was continuously broken, the characters were ridiculous and thrown in with the dogs, and I could go on. That's not to say there isn't a movie that doesn't do that - but in these JJ films they GLARE. What on earth were they thinking hiding a starship in an ocean and not expecting to be seen? You know there's lots of SPACE up there for a SPACE ship, right? Shuttlecraft go there too. Is Kirk stupid or something? They actually admit in this film that Kirk doesn't belong in the chair and he's not ready for it...so they get rid of Captain Pike AGAIN, and throw Kirk into command AGAIN just because he's a hero. At least Shatner's Kirk EARNED his stripes through a valid career.