James T. Kirk is just about to be born when the Federation starship USS Kelvin is suddenly attacked by a Romulan ship. As the ship's acting captain, Kirk's father sacrifices his own life to give more people a chance to evacuate.

Years later, Kirk is a roguish Starfleet cadet who finds himself at odds with a young Spock. When the Romulan ship that killed Kirk's father suddenly reappears, Kirk and Spock must learn to work together in order to keep it from destroying everything they love.

Or at least that's as much as I can say without going into too many spoilers. There's not actually a whole lot to the story.
I'll start off by saying that, although I was a fan of Star Trek: Enterprise, Voyager, and some of movies based on the original series, I was never actually much of a fan of the original series. I'd watched a few episodes (I distinctly remember one in which the alien beast was clearly footage of a domestic cat that was still wearing its collar), but it never really grew on me. Which is to say that I may have a different perspective on this movie than a diehard fan of the original series.

This movie felt like a character cameo vehicle, and that's even without all the actor cameos that were originally planned, according to the Wikipedia article for the movie. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed recognizing the younger versions of all the original series characters, although the one I thought was most effectively cast was Zachary Quinto as Spock. Chris Pine was good as Kirk, but he was better when he shared the screen with Quinto's Spock.

The story was...okay, if a tad long. This was my second time watching the movie (first was in the theater), and I was left with several questions. I initially assumed that the Romulans had somehow managed to jump forward in time a little more, to catch up with Spock, but this time around I noted the dialogue stating that they'd waited 25 years for Spock to arrive. Where did they wait? Why did no one find or notice them? Also, how did average Romulan miners figure out how to use red matter? And what even is red matter? No one ever asked that question, not even Kirk, who should have been as clueless as me.

All in all, this was okay, but it did leave a somewhat sour taste that the action was more memorable than the destruction of an entire alien homeworld. Does the next movie even bring that up? I can't remember, but I have a feeling it didn't get the time and emotional weight that something that horrible and enormous should have.

Extras:

A gag reel that wasn't particularly funny, a commentary I didn't listen to, and a "making of" featurette that had some interesting info.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

This was a pretty good Star Wars movie! Like, it wasn't Rise of Skywalker good, but it was probably about on par with Rogue One! That part at the beginning with the boy beating another boy bloody was kinda disturbing, though? And then he like became one of the protagonists? That was a bit distracting. Like, the dude clearly has some serious anger issues, which honestly kinda continue throughout the rest of the movie. I think we're supposed to like him but I kinda just don't get it.

He also talks about "logic" a lot so maybe he's written this way to be a dig at Reddit or something? You know, those guys (and it's ALWAYS guys) who insist that they're guided by logic and accuse everyone else of having "feels" but they're just honestly the angstiest, most emotionally-fragile mfers ever.

Not that the other protagonist is any better. Worse, actually. He's basically every bad stereotype about frat boys. I love a good horny protagonist as much as the next enby, but wow he was super rapey and just… unsubtle. He was also a pretty huge himbo, though, so at least there's that I guess.

They were really heavy-handed about that whole alternate timeline thing? Idk. Felt weird. And they spend a lot of time on the ship!! I thought that was kind of weird in a Star Wars movie, but everything else felt very Star Warsy so that's alright. Like, that engineer guy had a little alien dude sidekick and he didn't do or say anything, but the movie sure made sure you noticed him anyway. And the bad guy's entire plan is just… imma blow up planets!!

It was kinda weird how the one protagonist threw the other one off the ship for insubordination!! Is that how discipline works ordinarily in this universe? It was pretty funny how Kirk ended up on the same part of the same planet as that other super important character, though. classic Star Wars right there.

I can't wait to see how the sequel expands upon this pretty serviceable opening act and definitely doesn't just repeat the exact same conflicts as this one but dumber and less good. Also I'm sure these characters will grow on me eventually, right?

I mean, it is a Star Wars movie after all. ( )

This is so exciting for me! I grew up with the original Star Trek show, watching every week, worrying about what they would get into next. This new crew does a wonderful job of reinterpreting the original one. Love it, love it, love it! ( )

A time-traveling Romulan has a vendetta against Spock.

Fun and fast paced. There’s some nice comic relief, and loads of geek-pleasing moments. The action scenes are a mess. The plot isn’t very interesting, mostly just getting the characters re-introduced – which is fun for a fan, since it’s extremely well cast (especially Karl Urban’s Bones) and the characters and dialog are well-written – but there’s still not much plot. It’s not a science fiction movie, and it’s not a submarine movie like previous good action versions of Star Trek have been. In place of those elements, there’s standard loud, fast-moving-camera, dumb action. They’ve got the characters down right; now they just need to put them in a movie.

Concept: A
Story: F
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: F
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: A

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.8/4 ( )

As a fan of the original series when I was in High School, I wasn't sure I even wanted to like this, but was won over right off the bat. The entire franchise makes rather too much use of time travel, but here it's a master stroke--two events happen in the film that are drastically different than the original Star Trek timeline, and they alter everything, including the way classic characters behave. Thus we have the familiar characters and Trek universe developing and unfolding in both familiar and unfamiliar ways. There are plenty of bits to cheer old fans, such as when McCoy says his ex-wife took everything but his "Bones," or the first time he utters, "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?" And the scene where Enterprise comes roaring in on the attack is awesome because we've never really seen the likes of it in Star Trek. Beautifully cast, well written and acted, and J.J. Abrams affection for the whole thing is apparent. The fact that he's now working on Star Wars is a cause for celebration among fans everywhere. ( )