entertaining, action movie

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2013)

Full disclosure, I'm not a hard core Trekkie.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Lots of action, lots of twists and turns. For the true trekkies there's lots of references to past episodes but this being the "parallel" universe introduced in the last film, I don't see why the reviews point to that as being a negative. It's no surprise that the directors would want to pay homage to the old while still making way for the new. And they do a wonderful job here.
The philosophical discourses on morality, anthropology, right to live, logic vs emotion, is all still here - but given to you in "sound-bites" interspersed with dramatic well-choreographed action sequences.
The interplay between Spock & Kirk which to me was a strength in the first film, continues here and actually seems to improve. The villains were well cast and Cumberbatch especially does a great job at being the "superior" genetically engineered human.
One of the plot twists took me a while to digest and after a while it seemed to be dizzying. I'm not a big fan of how they "rescued" the ending which is why I cannot give this film 10/10.
9.5/10