As much as I loathe Hollywood’s inability to generate new film ideas, this re-hashing of perhaps the best sci-fi series ever, was a wonderful surprise. Starting from the eyes inward, the special effects were spectacular. However, as I’ve said many times, in this day and age, we expect nothing less. So no stars there.
The cast was expertly selected, each filling their role to a tee. Of course, there’s no end to background material, and I doubt seriously that once on set the question was asked “What’s my motivation?” Still, McCoy and Spock stole the show, barreling over even James T. Kirk in their replication of past favorites.
There were some plot problems, however. First off, “red matter” was just a little silly. The armed and armored Romulan mining vessel scrubbed a whole fleet? What are they mining, Death Stars? Then of course, there was the Deus Ex Machina moments – like Kirk happening to land within walking distance of Future Spock’s self imposed exile cave. Another major problem was what I refer to as the “cheat.”
When Sulu is unable to get the Enterprise into gear we miss a major space battle. I don’t know about you, but I was there *for* the space battle. Simply put, we were cheated, either by a studio’s graphics budget or a director who thought his plot was better served by flaming all of Starfleet and denying three generations of loyal fans a chance to witness it. In either case, we deserved more.
That said, Star Trek was overall a fine piece of sci-fi cinema.