[Prudence]

I haven't read the gazillion or so prior reviews, so I'm probably just restating stuff that's been rehashed over and over again.

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm glad the franchise has been revived. Revival at this point was probably going to require some actual changes and not just doing a better movie in the same mold as before, and thus I concede that some of the things I don't like were probably necessary if there's to be any more at all. I liked young Spock and Bones. And I'm not generally a purist - especially when it's acknowledged up front that this isn't a true "prequel" and not really meant to be shown in a contiguous series with the other films - so I don't mind any changes to previously established story lines.

However, there were a lot of things that bugged me. The sequence with the kid in the car was completely unnecessary and shouldn't even have been there. Complete waste of time and a disruption. Young Kirk was mediocre; seemed like he didn't have enough to back up his attitude and seemed too much like he was playacting. Scotty I really wanted to like - Simon Pegg, what's not to like? - but his introduction was ham-handed and nothing about him reminds me of the original at all. And the sidekick? Really? Mostly mute alien sidekick? Ish! Sulu and Chekov I wasn't fond of either - I wouldn't have known who they were. And Uhura? Worst of all. I realize that the original version is basically a switchboard operator, and that's not exactly inspiring for today's society, but I didn't like her character, didn't understand why she and Spock apparently had a relationship out of nowhere, and would be just as happy if she were never seen again.

Music in films lately has been annoyingly contemporary at times, and the same thing happened here on occasion - but mostly in the previews, and I can't really hold the movie responsible for that.

The whole thing seemed too fasat paced for me. Already in command of a ship? Really? I was expecting this adventure to get him out of his original school troubles, but not set him up as captain right then. You can suspend my disbelief on technology and explosions and how long people can hold their breath and the accumulation of coincidences, but a military-based organization just is NOT going to promote people that fast. I can't go there.

The one really unique part of my viewing was the earthquake timed for the Kelvin destruction. That will probably not be repeated, sadly.