Welcome to another exciting universe cinema has put forth in front of our eyes. Under the direction of J. J. Abrams, comes the alternate reality prequel reboot series of Star Trek! The primary asset of this film that hits us right off would be its astounding technicalities! Michael Giacchino's Olympian score, grandeur space arena, pragmatic futuristic world & vehicle models, on-the-action camera takes with the director's signature of lens flare, heavily cemented sound designs, memorable dialogues, ostentatious technology, snappy cuts, terrific makeup effects and creature blueprints will justify your valuable time spent watching this feature! The Chinese orchestra piece for Vulcan & Spock is unsuitable though.
Here we have a peacekeeping humanitarian armada known as the United Federation of Planets with its Starfleet troopers who takes care of the universe. In this fictional macrocosm, apart from the intense space battles & great actions, we are introduced & told to focus on 2 high profile personas with opposite ends of characterizations. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is a highly intelligent Vulcan who purges all emotions and act based on logics, due to the integrated teaching in his home planet. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is an outrageously rebellious & expressive person who doesn't follow any rules while focusing on his goals to be achieved. What do you get to see when these two personalities collide? Fantastic friction, arguments, chemistry & conflicts! And this is the best part of this story! And both the actors played their roles coolly! As far as character development goes, Spock had a better one due to information from his childhood. His humane side & love for his mother has always been there since young until present, which will come in employment at the pre-climax.
Apart from these leads, each characters are established of their expertise before assuming responsibilities and quickly yet eventually becoming a team. It's all about teamwork that successfully docks this mammoth mission. Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman installed riveting scenes into the script, such as Kobayashi Maru crew test, Kirk's bloated hand & repeated vaccinations by Bones (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho) & Kirk parachuting down the sky, George Kirk's (Chris Hemsworth) touching suicide impact and realistic flight wars banjaxed. You might wonder why did the hearing suspend halfway, only to understand the significant impact when it concludes on a different note.
While most of the feature runs chronologically, there is this one timeline that pays homage to the original Star Trek. Clearly, this is an effort to retain the material accomplished back in the day while simultaneously attempting to refresh the franchise for the current generation. We've seen this happening in movies like X-Men: Days of Future Past. And the time traveling aspect is genius & fantabulous! It fits seamlessly with the puzzle flow of events. References to the older films such as 'Live Long & Prosper' are made too.
Obviously, Star Trek isn't a perfect outing. We've seen 'planet destroying' villains and plans umpteenth times on silver screens, so it's nothing new or revolutionary to offer. Also, we don't see how destroying the United Federation of Planets and the homes it protects would make any sense to help Nero's (Eric Bana) own world. Deliberate scenes are simply added just to interject actions into the runtime, like the Delta Vega creatures attack and Scotty (Simon Pegg) getting stuck in a water tube. Why didn't Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) attend the Starfleet outpost at Delta Vega prior to the arrival of Kirk? Was he unknowingly waiting for his arrival? Isn't this the biggest plot convenience right here? If the Kobayashi Maru test isn't meant to be passed, then what's the point of failing or having it at all? There are absolutely no reasons for the making-out clip to appear or sequences showing interactions between Nyota (Zoe Saldana) & Kirk, since the former is a girlfriend of Spock, which was quite abrupt upon its reveal. We better hope there's going to be an interesting love triangle, or else this will just end up purposeless. Baby delivery on space is really funny. If Leonard McCoy is complaining so much about operations on space, why sign up for Starfleet then? Zulu could have ejected his own parachute if he falls down, right? This does not require any heroic actions from Kirk, right? How did the inhabitants of Vulcan not know that the planet is crumbling down through the massive earthquakes & destructions instead of being informed verbally by Spock?
"Put aside logic. Do what feels right. "