Woohoo!!!! I’m psyched you liked it.

I don’t care a whit about the changes. I can’t wait to see this on the IMAX in my favorite seat on Sunday.

I also expected this one to be light on depth, so I’m cool with that. I want the Kirk/Spock story.

I CAN’T WAIT!!! I haven’t been this psyched for a movie since “The Phantom Menace.”

I really shouldn’t have typed that. I might have just jinxed myself.

I really hope this movie breathes new life not only into the series—”Star Trek” has been around my whole life: it can’t go away now—but into Star Trek: The Experience in Vegas. I’m actually excited about the fact that they are putting off the grand opening until they have incorporated the new movie and added all the old and new elements they want to. I think the success of this film has made them reconsider just how big The Experience could be in Vegas.

I should say I’m fine with the ideals and the plot being light. I’m hoping the characters themselves and their interactions have some depth. That’s what I am looking for from this movie. As with any first movie in a series, they have to introduce all the characters, which takes time. I’m just hoping we get at least a taste of who they are despite the need to set the stage.

Most excellent!

So, I saw it, and my reaction is most definitely a mixed bag.

The good:

1) I’m in love with Spock all over again. Quinto made me want to hug the life out of him. (I settled for hugging my stuffed-Spock key chain instead.) His Spock has that air of superiority and competency, rendered acceptable by youth and an almost painfully adorable vulnerability.
2) Kirk was as much the handsome and brash ham as one would expect, but also demonstrated both a willingness to do what must be done and concern for the well-being of his captain, crew and shipmates.
3) The Kirk/Spock/Spock Prime moments also screamed Trek to me, and were just divine. Urban was good as McCoy, too, if sometimes a touch too on the nose, but it was Kirk and Spock getting to know each other and themselves that made me squee with disturbingly geekish delight.

The bad:

1) Winona Ryder
2) The bad guy’s motives required a suspension of disbelief even by Star Trek standards.
3) Winona Ryder
4) The breadth of the bad guy’s vengeance required a suspension of disbelief even by Star Trek standards.
5) Winona Ryder (Seriously: I don’t care that she was in the movie for two blinks of the eye and then gone. Her inability to bring Spock’s mother to life for me affected the way I viewed a number of other moments in the film.)
6) The “science”…. Forget “suspension of disbelief.” The science was ludicrous even by Star Trek standards.
7) The many moments that better recalled “Galaxy Quest” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” than they did “Star Trek.” In fact, save for the defining moments between the characters that made this shipper’s heart soar, the movie just did not say “Star Trek” to me.
Oh, and I almost forgot: Winona Ryder.

Did I like it? Absolutely. It was good summer fun. I’ll even see it again. And when I do see it again, I’ll know better what to expect. I’ll get some Trek that is divine as divine can be. And the rest of it? Well, it’s escapist sci-fi entertainment: fun, but silly and ultimately throwaway, flashy background noise for the character moments. Hopefully, the next movie will have less of the former and a whole lot more of the latter.

I forgot: I liked the romance they introduced as well. It worked for me. Canon be damned: such things matter not to me.

Oh, and everyone did a good job bringing to life the crew. True, the jokes at the expense of Chekhov’s accent played a little like Jar Jar moments for me, but they were kind of endearing, too. Sulu was rather flat, what with his part being almost as minimal as a red shirt’s, but he also got a little (and highly ridiculous, though entertaining) action moment in which to have fun.

And Blain, you’re right, of course. It’s an origin picture. And for an origin picture that also had to tell a pretty hectic action story at the same time, the movie managed to pack in a lot more character development and charm than you might expect.

And more props to Abrams: he actually made me like Scotty’s little, uglified Ewok lab assistant. Everything in me recoiled automatically from such cloying, cartoonish cuteness, but against my better judgment I liked the little guy.

He did kind of look like a toy poodle, didn’t he?

And I agree: All three of those moments were nice touches (although I thought Red Shirt’s joyride was a little odd given that they had a mission to complete to save the planet and all that…).

“I have been, and always will be, your friend.” It said so much about both what has been and what is yet to come for Star Trek.

That line SO got me.

And of course it was also a clever homage to STIII.

Or is that II? It is, I believe. Oh, well: the point is the same.