Enjoyable and with great special effects, but too hectic and lacking in character development and the original Star Trek spirit

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2013)

This is a fast-paced, action-filled Star Trek movie roughly based on the Kahn story. Special effects are a big part of this movie, and they are truly spectacular.
The second great thing about this movie is that the TOS characters have been brought back to life as their younger selves. All of the actors (including Pine) have done a marvelous job with this.
I enjoyed the first half of this movie more than the second half. The film more or less fell apart for me when the villain was introduced. I was surprised and dismayed that Abrams had decided to revive Khan, which in my view has been done to death. Also, I didn't really like this particular villain. (He reminded me a little of the ridiculous Bane character in The Dark Knight Rises.) The story line involving this character was too far-fetched and complicated.
Also, I still have a hard time accepting Pine's Kirk. This is an interesting Kirk, but it is a Kirk who has no gravitas, no military bearing, no judgment, no leadership. He commands zero respect. He could not command a rowboat, never mind a star ship. And yet we're expected to believe that Star Fleet (not to mention his highly trained crew) would allow him to do all these things. Sorry, it's just not believable.
In TOS, one of the issues was that Kirk was constantly beaming away from his ship rather than sending other people to do the exploring. Abrams and his writers ignore this problem. As discussed extensively for decades by Star Trek fans, a captain should be with this ship. This Kirk is never with his ship. He seems to have no relationship with his ship at all. He gives the impression of not being an explorer at all.
I think a mistake has been made in not developing the characters more fully. The three-way dynamic between this new Kirk, this new Spock and and this new McCoy should be given time to develop. In TOS, the various characters developed slowly, and were revealed to the television-viewing audience, as the episodes progressed.
Another issue is that the quirks of each character were, well, just quirks. Kirk's bad-boy side, Spock's internal struggle with his emotional side, Spock's annoying reliance on logic and regulations, Bones's orneriness and contrariness, Scotty's overprotectiveness of the ship – well, these aspects were not what these characters were all about. Abrams and his writers have turned these quirks into personalities. It's like their personalities have been warped out of shape by these quirks. It's not realistic, and somehow disrespectful of the original show. You can't have a captain who is always a bad boy, an engineer that quits whenever his ship is threatened, a ship bay's doctor who argues and complains about every single damn thing.
The same applies to the relationship issues between Spock and Kirk, between Spock and Bones, and so on. These relationships are merely side issues in the lives of these space explorers. It's overdone in the movie. Besides, these characters are too young to have grown into these relationships.
For the love of Pete, Spock is supposed to be a Vulcan. Stop obsessing about his emotional side. Let the new Spock develop his character as a proper Vulcan. Right now I don't know what to make of him. He hardly seems Vulcan at all.
I recognized and appreciated the various references in the movie to the TOS episodes. However, some of them were annoyingly not consistent with the Star Trek universe. Also, it is generally dissatisfying to see earlier episodes and movies redone. I hope Abrams abandons that approach. I want to see new, original ideas. I do not particularly want to see TOS incidents and episodes rehashed. The minute I knew this was a Khan remake, I knew he would either end up in stasis again or be deported to an isolated world with the other supermen. If Abrams wishes to make Star Trek relevant to a new generation, he should do it without hollowing out old TOS plots.
It bothered me that Abrams dragged Nimoy back into this. I actually groaned aloud when he appeared. Is new Spock now going to contact old Spock every time he gets into a pickle?
Finally, this movie was too hectic. Star Trek is not primarily about action, space hardware, chases and shootouts. Nor is Star Trek about special effects. Star Trek is thought-provoking, idea-based science fiction set in a future when want, war and money have been eliminated and the Federation is exploring the galaxy. Star Trek does not have to be about conflict and action. I hope Abrams and his team can see that. I'm not really into action movies, and I'm certainly not into shootout and chase movies. It would be a shame for the franchise to go in this direction.
There were a number of other things in the movie that didn't work for me, but it seems petty to list them in detail.
Sure, I enjoyed it well enough, but it did not blow me away and it left me with a bad feeling about where this is going. They may be destroying the spirit of the franchise to make money from a generation of viewers. The sad part is that these moviegoers will think that this is what Star Trek is all about. I know it will be hard to ignite the imaginations of a modern, jaded, cynical, internet-and-video-game-addicted audience. There are already many action and superhero movies out there. Star Trek should go in a different direction.