Star Trek Non-Spoiler Review

Non-Spoiler review for everyone. These are mostly just my initial thoughts as I watched it last night. I might have more thoughts in a few days and I might post if I deem it important enough to. But for now, here's my first thoughts:

The moment the movie begins, you are thrown into the action and it is non-stop. And even when it does, your heart doesn’t stop pounding in your chest, anticipating the next move or the emotional scene that might follow the action sequence. For that reason, most action-adventure film-goers will love this movie.

The storyline is pretty fluid throughout and easy enough to follow. I didn’t really find much flaw there. John Harrison (Cumberbatch) blows up a library-like facility and it’s a mystery as to why that and he is aggressively pursued by the Enterprise crew once the truth is revealed.

The actors are amazing -- most notably Benedict Cumberbatch. He just IS the character. He is rim-rod straight and focused throughout. Whomever wrote his part in this movie was just brilliant. And Cumberbatch delivered all his lines perfectly with all the right emotions at the right time. Pinpoint accurate. Everyone else did just as well as the last film - no real deviations from their characters or how they were written. Not sure why McCoy was angry in this film but he wasn’t the focus so I let it go. And Spock struggles with his human vs. Vulcan side in this a lot. I’m not sure I liked how it was portrayed. He really acted as if it were a light switch that he could turn on and off at a whim. I’m not really sure Roddenberry wrote the character quite that black and white.

I did have some issues with some of the original Star Trek lines getting thrown in for the heck of it. Not that they were out of place perse, but I felt it was forced more than natural. More of a “We need a laugh here so throw in one of McCoy’s classic lines! STAT!” So it felt a bit forced.

I liked the moral thread of  “do the right thing” and “what feels right” throughout - although coming from the Spock perspective it seemed forced or pounded into you a bit too often.

I’d say go see this but maybe pay matinee prices instead. Not a bad movie but it needed a little work in certain places. It was definitely a fun movie to go see on a night out. And it does leave it open for the continuity purposes of what Roddenberry set up in the old films as well as for future films in this franchise. I would recommend seeing it in 3D. It did add many good visual effects to a lot of the scenes.