All the ingredients were there, but it didn't totally gel - still a film worth seeing though.

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2013)

Having heard mixed reports about the film I approached it with a worry that I was going to hate, which I was relieved to say I didn't.
I liked the re-boot of the franchise, the casting is good and everyone is slipping nicely into their roles, all be it that some get to do a great deal more than others which is inevitable in a film of this type.
The plot as it stands is okay. With the shadow of a war with the Klingons looming, an ex StarFleet Officer, John Harrison (The superb Benedict Cumberbatch) hatches a plot to blow up a Starfleet weapons base and then wipe out many of its key fleet Captains. Losing a friend in the process Kirk begs to stop him and so the hunt is on, but not everything is as it seems.
Spoiler Alert.
Up until this point, despite a rather silly but fun opening sequence the film works well. Snappy dialogue is abound, everyone looks like their having fun and your quite happy to sit back a go along for the ride. The problem here is Hollywood doesn't know when to stop. Harrison as a villain is way too one dimensional, and once revealed as Khan, he just seems to be played as pure evil, yet he has a totally justified cause in wishing to free his crew. The previous Khan, was a man scorned by Kirk, he wasn't completely evil. I am guessing this is the direction the actor was given but I think he could have been more interesting and this would have made Kirks dilemma less free of moral consequences. My other gripe is that in the time line, technology wise, we seem to be jumping around a bit. I mean the enterprise was only just commissioned last movie wasn't it? Now we have a dreadnought style vessel, just put on screen to look big and powerful, to be honest, it just looks stupid, out of place and makes any battles with it totally devoid of tension, as it seems to fire weapons like alien vessels from independence day, and not like those from a Trek movie. Having gone at such great pains to take us back to the origins and done such a good job of doing so, do we have to immediately go for bigger and bigger ships for our bad guys, and immediately resort to 'Michael Bay' style gunfire in the action sequences, which rapidly makes them very uninteresting to watch. The naval style feel of the space combat is totally loss here and makes it really boring. My ship is bigger than your ship, it can destroy you.... yes it can.... yawn.
That aside, I really enjoyed the movie, it was sprinkled with great lines and jokes, the characters felt familiar, but not too familiar but I think it really should be allowed to create its own way now, and not fall back into old links from the show, sure the references should be there, but don't make it a major plot point. I didn't care that Kirk constantly ignores his orders and that the prime directive seems to exist more on paper than anything else, its fantasy after all.
The ship is now starting its five year mission, this will get it away from earth and allow for some really interesting ideas for new films. Let's hope we see them.