Plot Holes Galore

Rating: 2/10 (27 May 2013)

Since I am discussing bad plotting, this review is chock full of spoilers.
There is a simple way to check a plot for holes. Simply look at the characters' motives and see if their actions result from those motives. It is particularly important to check this for the villains, because the sloppy or lazy writer just uses the villains to set up obstacles for the heroes without regard for logic or motivation.
The two villains here are Khan and General Marcus.
Khan's goals are (1) reassemble his crew (2) get a starship (3) dominate the galaxy. So what does he do? He blows up a Starfleet archive, attacks Starfleet command and then .... flees to an uninhabited sector of the Klingon Empire. Now why does a super-genius think that this furthers his immediate goals of unfreezing his crew and acquiring a vessel, or better yet, a fleet?
But here's where the unbelievable General Marcus comes in. General Marcus' goals are (1)secretly assemble a massive Starfleet military force in preparation for war with the Klingons (2) provoke said war with the Klingons ... even before his awesome armada is built except for one ship (huh?) (3)protect his lovely daughter.
To this end he enlists Khan to help him design his superbattleship of space (which weirdly can be controlled by just one crewman). Then, when Khan escapes and decimates the Starfleet Command which is vital to his projected war, Marcus decides now is the perfect time to provoke the Klingons.
So he sends Kirk to fire long-range photon torpedoes from neutral space to kill Khan. And he makes sure the Enterprise is crippled in neutral space, so that the Klingons discover and presumably capture the Starfleet vessel bombarding them. EXCEPT...for no reason whatsoever, the torpedoes are loaded with the cryogenically frozen bodies of Khan's crew. Which means the Enterprise is firing duds and the Klingons will only discovered a disabled Enterprise just outside their space. Which is hardly the causus belli Marcus wants to create.
Naturally enough, Kirk of the Enterprise does not fire the weapons. Because of nice speech about how it is wrong to kill vicious terrorist assassins with drones on foreign soil rather than bringing them back to stand trial (gee, wonder what present day parallel the writers are thinking about). So, Marcus has to send his supership, not to start the Klingon war himself, but to kill Kirk, Khan and the Enterprise crew. Because... I don't know, just because he is eeeeeevil.
But he screws even this up and Khan gets control of the superbattleship of space, which, by sheer damn good luck, one man can run. So, Khan goes on a rampage and smashes his flying vessel into some skyscrapers on Earth (hmmm, wonder what events inspired the writers). Yes, I wonder, particularly in view of more dull speechifying that there will always be those trying to destroy us, but we mustn't lower ourselves by, you know, retaliating.
Preachy, yes. PC, fer shur!
Plot logic? Naaah!