First of all, let me say I made a conscious effort to avoid any and all spoilers because I wanted to go in to this movie fresh.

Karl Urban was a brilliant casting choice and his performance was largely, and misguidedly, ignored. While he managed to channel DeForest Kelley to a certain extent, he still managed to make the character his own and it is best described as the perfect homage to DeForest. I'm [i]sure[/I ]he looked down fondly on it.

Scotty was underutilized in the film but the way they brought him into the fold made sense and it actually reminded me of how Scotty tended to be out of the way with a couple of clever one-liners here and there. "I gave 'em to the Klingons." from The Trouble With Tribbles comes to mind.

I think Zachary Quinto's performance has been over-rated. Good. Not great. Others could have done it just as well. But his casting was the only one that was intentionally seeking a look alike since his predecessor was in the film as well. Leonard Nimoy's role was underwritten and he was under-directed. While I appreciate J.J. Abram's likely wanting to respect Nimoy's acting choices and connection to the character, I found he gave him a little too much leeway with his portrayal. Spock had come to embrace his human side more and more through the films and even in Next Gen. That being said, he still exhibited his Vulcan stoicism more often than not. I hate the Uhura/Spock love affair. They'd better quash that one. I did like the "Good luck." though if only because it showed young Spock that he will learn to loosen up a bit.

I liked the humour a lot and you didn't need to understand Star Trek historically to get it. Much of the humour came from the interrelations of the crew rather than passing references to established Trek lore.

I enjoyed the special effects. The only thing that bothered me about them was the too often used digital editing ploy of a bright light directed into the camera that allows a quick cut that would otherwise look choppy. At times it is appropriate, like when the camera is facing a star. But there are also times when it was just an obvious editing ploy, like on the bridge when Spock has Kirk by the throat. The animals chasing Kirk on an alien planet was tacked on and really added little to the movie. They could just as easily have led Kirk to Spock's cave by happenstance.

Anton Yelchin actually did a pretty good job of sounding like Chekov. While the high-pitched whine of it was overpowering at times, it is exactly how Walter Koenig sounded. He just looks younger than Koenig did. MUCH younger. Almost Wesley Crusher-esque.

I liked the realism of the new Enterprise. It was a lot more like the kind of ship that would actually be built.

The destruction of Romulus was kinda lame. I mean, while it is a quasi-effective way to show Nero as an enraged and vengeful psychopath Spock would not have made such a glaring error and even if Romulus had achieved peace with the Federation (based on Spock's appearance and whiter hair I assume it falls a few years after Nemesis) they would not have put all their eggs in Spock's basket, so to speak. And the planet likely would have undertaken a large scale evacuation should Spock's plan fail. Then again, there is also the plot hole of how Romulus would fare the change of gravitational forces resulting from the loss of a star in a nearby system. Any why was there no mention of Remus?

Eric Bana was a poor choice overall but his casting didn't take away from the movie or story at all. His only moment in the film that I totally liked was "Fire everything!" I think they could have found someone better. While Bana has proven himself to be a capable actor and one known for his inner turmoil characterizations I think someone else could have done more with the role. Tomalak, for example, I think could have been a more sensible choice. Granted they are trying to distance themselves but at least he would have been old enough for the strength of his convictions and hatred of the Federation to be somewhat sensible. And it would have been nice to see him in a darker vein with the character. Tomalak also showed a dark sense of humour that I think would have fit well into this movie.

In keeping with Star Trek lore, the next two films (Spock is still alive and has now met the young Spock) could easily be written to re-establish the timeline and ultimately kill off old Spock in some grand gesture of self-sacrifice.

And that's my two (or perhaps twenty or more) cents.

To anyone who didn't like that movie: I'm very sorry you have no soul because some sort of evil space vampire stole it. That is a tragedy.

i totally agree, an alt univers?? if this was such a big issue why didnt the future time federation pilice people (sorry cant remember their title) come back with an amada to stop nero? they popped back enough times to sort out janeway and cpt archer???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because then we wouldn't have this awesome movie

I think the movie could be canon if we place it in the mirror universe. Also in the case that the destrution of Romulus would happen in the normal time line, that don't means all Romulans would be anihilated, but many including the spouse of Nero and the planet itself.

As a generic space-opera action flick, I give it a 4/5.
It had great special effects, even if Abrams abused the shaky-cam to no end and didn't bother to drop his television esque continuous close ups for the big screen. The plot has some obvious loopholes, aside from the standard silliness that time-travel invokes (a running problem in series such as Trek and Terminator). The movie held a solid pace however and delivered some excellent inter-character dialogue. Good humor was also included, especially with Scotty ("I like this ship! It's exciting!" just after a very tense moment). The new warp effects were top notch. The scene with the fleet jumping to vulcan was one of my favorites of the film, it really let you feel how big and powerful, yet incredibly fast these ships are. The use of multiple small phaser blasts to cut down incoming torpedoes was a great addition as well (something previous trek pieces avoided due to budgets I assume as this technology to target and down incoming projectiles exists today and is extremely effective).

As a Star Trek movie (which this is unfortunately titled), I give it a 0/5.
Gene would indeed be turning in his grave. Previous trek films had some form of message about the human condiiton. [Nemesis pondered what it means to be the better person, Insurrection considered the price of immortality and the morality of forced relocation, First Contact considered vengeance and perfection, Generations looked at joy, immortality, duty, and making a difference, etc] This movie's only message seems to be 'join the military'. Gene was very keen on troubles coming from the outside, but in this film interpersonal conflict is used as a macheavelean tool by Kirk on his crew to get what he wants due to "destiny". What the hell is destiny talk doing in Star Trek amoung the main crew? Sure, superstitions, religions, and translinear beings can mention it, but to humans who live with the future being the realm of possibilities, such talk is antithetical to the philosophical foundations of the series.

I can forgive logic errors like black holes allowing for time travel (along with a dozen other misconceptions about black holes), and even the occassional self consistency error like how the ship effortlessly traverses the black hole in the beginning but is destroyed by it later. Those things will only dock a point from its action flick value. But Star Trek, Gene's Star Trek, is better than this mindless summer action flick.

Tomalak would've been a bad choice, because he would not have fit in, not to mention that Andreas Katsurla's died a few years ago and I don't think anyone would replace him in that role.

Actually you are very incorrect with that statement, there are nothing illogical and no misconceptions of time travel with black holes. There dozens of real theories that involves them.

And the Narada wasn't destroyed by the singularity, if you recall it was perfectly intact until the Enterprise let loose on her and the Narada was sucked into the singularity, and parts unknown. (Which very well could have the Nero return in another sequel).

I would recommend you check out the Star Trek Countdown comics for the full movie prequel. In it it shows Nero and Old Spock's friendship (as they're both part of the Reunification Underground), both of them trying to convince both the Romulan senate and Vulcan Command that their two respective technologies would actually save Romulus, but being at war for so long the 2 powers mistrusted each other and told Spock and Nero to go **** themselves.

However, Old Spock does acknowledge to Captain Data and Ambassador Picard that he did miscalculate how soon the Hobus star would go nova, that's why he elects to fly the Jellyfish to the Hobus system, cos no matter how old Spock may be, he'll always be that vulcan with a dedication to duty that we saw on Kirk's Enterprise all those years ago.

LOL@arcturic So very true... Spock and Nero were leaders, especially Spock from the enterprise.

I'll definitely have to track down that countdown series!