I've seen Star Trek twice, so far, so I figure it's time to write up a small review.

Overall, I thought it was a good movie.  I can't say great because there was enough variation on the original Star Trek themes that resulted in it being not Star Trek at all, in many aspects.  From an action and suspense view, J. J. Abrams really did a great job.

WARNING, spoilers below!

The Bad

First of all, before I saw the movie the first time, I picked up the soundtrack, and gave it a quick listen.  Boring.  Really, it didn't sound like Star Trek music at all, except for the end credits track, which brought back some of the TOS music.  The soundtrack is supposed to be bright and uplifting, yet provide a complement the sense of awe that the viewer feels when the Enterprise is presented in space.  The Jurassic Park soundtrack would have done a better job in this movie.  Some of the music felt a little silly and woefully misplaced, as well..  For example, when Kirk was piloting the Kelvin into the Narada, the music should have consisted of maybe a chorus with an ambient melody.  It was supposed to evoke an emotion from the viewer - similar to the scene in Mission Impossible 2, after Nyah injects herself with Chimera, and the gunfight ensues.  It's too bad Dennis McCarthy didn't compose ths soundtrack.  Instead, J. J. Abrams picked Michael Giacchino, who dropped the ball.

Starfleet was protrayed as being way too informal.  Maybe this was Abrams' attempt at adding some comic relief (it worked in some cases) or trying to develop the characters too rapidly.  For example, Pike tried to get Checkov's name right a couple times before asking him.  That was insulting and silly, and would have never been done by any other captain in Starfleet.  If the captain didn't know the name of one of his officers, he should ask!  Overall, Checkov's character was overdone, but that's another topic.

Why did McCoy bother to ask Spock if he could speak freely?  Everyone spoke way too freely the whole time!  Spock should have thrown Kirk in the brig for yelling at him the first time.  Also, Kirk sitting in the chair before he had officially become an office on the Entprise?  Ok, it was a little funny, but still out of place.

What's up with Uhura and Spock?  The whole thing just felt wrong, but I guess Abrams was trying to show Spock's human side.

There were also a ton of technical inaccuracies, or things I thought were wrong.  Here are a couple:

• When Kirk plotted the collision course toward the Narada, the warp nacelle seemed to come to life instead of the impulse engines.  The ship certainly didn't go to warp, someone obviously messed up.
• When Spock attacked Kirk on the bridge, he supposedly resigned his commission and left the bridge.  Somehow, he came right back into action a little bit later, no questions asked!
• How can a star go nova and threaten the entire Milky Way galaxy?  First off, the Milky Way is huge, a star might take out a solar system or two, but not threaten an entire galaxy.  Even if it did, why care only about Romulus?  How about Earth, Vulcan, or everything else!  This is all covered in Star Trek: Countdown.  I read the summaries, and now it makes much more sense.
• Why was the Enterprise being built in Iowa, on the ground?  What happened to being built in space like everything else?
• The Narada was a joke.  It was menacing indeed, but couldn't have been functional as a mining ship, at that size.  It also looked like it was held together with twine, or nothing at all.
• Orion females in Starfleet?  Come on!
• There's only one warp core, not four or however many were ejected at the end like torpedos.
• There's no sound in space.  They got this right-on at the beginning and during the space jump.  However, why did warp speed make that jarring sound, and why did we hear phasers firing?
• No bridge would have a window instead of a viewscreen.  And it wouldn't crack!

There was too much action.  Maybe there was just too much CGI.  The camera shook way too often, and for little reason.   Engineering wasn't engineering.  It was like an oil refinery or something.  The bridge felt like an Apple Store (as one reviewer had said), too.  Spock's ship, The Jellyfish (?) looked like it was from Star Wars, not Star Trek.

The Enterprise exterior.. they got everything right except for the nacelles.  They are ugly!  Butt ugly!  Whoever's idea it was to make the buzzard collectors black should be fired.

Also, Nokia product placement.  In Star Trek?  That went too far, I'm just not sure what to say.

The miniskirts have to go.  Just replace them with skin-tight spandex, and the effect will remain the same!

The Good

Spock's conflict between his human and Vulcan side was done nicely.  I was waiting for the "how do you feel?" question when he was taking the aptitude test at the beginning.  McCoy's character was good, too - he even looked like he got younger as the movie progressed.

Kirk's character was done nicely, too - definitely a leap-before-thinking and fearless individual.  The birth scene (except for the music) was done well.  I usually don't like childbirth scenes in movies, but they somehow did a good job with this one, and didn't show too many scenes that would have made the viewer (ok, just me) uncomfortable.

The classic taglines were good:

• I'm a doctor, not a physicist! -- McCoy
• I'm givin' her all she's got! -- Scotty
• I am, and always shall be, your friend. -- Spock

The plot wasn't too bad.  I knew it was going to be a reboot right from the start, so I got used to the idea way ahead of time, and it was no surprise.

Is the parking break on?  There were a few funny moments, and they were done nicely.  They kept with the red shirt theme, too!

As I said before, overall - good, go see it a couple times!

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