Spoiler Warning -- Do Not Read This Review if you have not already seen the movie.

**1/2  (out of four)

I have a number of problems with the plot of this film, not the least of which is its erasing of all prior TOS-related canon, which is in fact its greatest sin, and its overall implications don’t even stop there because it renders all later modern Trek shows (save for “Enterprise” perhaps –how ironic!) null and void as well. Some might want to argue that by some miracle The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager all unfolded the way they were supposed to even taking this new film into account, but that is quite simply impossible because in those post-TOS modern Trek incarnations it was clearly established that the planet Vulcan was alive and well. So take TNG, DS9 and Voyager off the table now as a result too. Hundreds of episodes and ten movies rendered completely null and void.  Gee, how wonderful -- and I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would ever say the following, but dare I say it: this is worse than if they were to have resurrected Kirk from the dead post-Generations because the implications are a hell of a lot more far-reaching.

                In terms of action, the film opens well. Nero, the Romulan Captain of a ship called the Narada, emerges from the future and into the past, initially without his even realizing it. In a rage over having just witnessed the destruction of Romulus in his own era, he attacks the first ship he sees: a Federation Starship (the USS Kelvin) that also carries Kirk’s father and his pregnant mother. The Captain of the Kelvin is instructed to beam aboard Nero’s ship during the assault and Kirk’s father is placed in command. As a result of the peril at hand, Winona Kirk goes into labor as the ship is being evacuated and Kirk’s father sacrifices himself in order for the crew to escape safely. High intensity action and I couldn’t help but notice the striking resemblance of the escape shuttles to the shuttles seen in the original series –a nod and homage of a sort that I really liked and appreciated (for what it’s worth).

                Jump-shot to Kirk as a boy racing a classic sports car recklessly over the side of a cliff just after being warned by his stepfather, older brother—who knows who—not to damage his prized vehicle.  Kirk barely makes it out of the car just in time and pulls himself up from the side of the cliff as the car crashes to the bottom of the canyon. I can understand some boyish impetuousness, but this is just plain crazy. Kirk’s mother is never seen again. His step-father or older brother is never shown and never heard from again, and this standalone scene can almost be edited out of the film entirely, but it does help set the stage for the older Kirk we’re about to meet, who—to put it mildly—still has issues.

                He hits on the first girl he sees (Uhura) in the next scene, and in his bold inebriated stupor then proceeds to pick a fight with four StarFleet cadets, asserting that they’re short on muscle to put him in his place. Pine is good in the role, and this is an angrier Kirk than we’ve come to know up until now, and the underlying reason for his defiant rage is a result of the absence of the father he never got to know and who wasn’t there to raise him. (This becomes clearer later in the movie when he meets the elder Spock and specifically asks him if he ever knew his father in the other timeline that Spock is from.)

                Overall the stage is set and the film doesn’t waste any more time on Kirk’s misspent youth. Pike sits down and has a father-son type talk with him following the bar fight and manages to convince him to join Starfleet. Initially I had some reservations about Bruce Greenwood in the role of Pike, but he does a fine job. What happens with his character ultimately, as with all the main characters, is another matter entirely, however.

                Young Spock’s encounter on Vulcan with Vulcan boys intent on tormenting him into showing human anger and emotion because he’s of mixed heritage is consistent with what we already know about the character’s background and childhood, but what follows later in his early adulthood is not. These two principal characters—Kirk and Spock—meet in Starfleet Academy following Kirk’s having cheated on the Kobayashi Maru Test, which, as it turns out here, had been designed, or at the very least maintained by Spock. The original series and big screen features in no way indicates anything like this, and the writers here rely on vagueness and a lack of implication in those prior films to reach this contrivance. And while Kirk’s life up to this point has taken some very different turns than what he had experienced in the original unaltered timeline, Spock’s existence appears to have gone unaffected up to this point, seemingly consistent in both timelines (again though, the Kobayashi Maru and Spock’s influence of it is open to question).

Spoiler Warning - - - ->

>>I have a number of problems with the plot of this film, not the least of which is its erasing of all prior TOS-related canon, which is in fact its greatest sin, and its overall implications don’t even stop there because it renders all later modern Trek shows (save for “Enterprise” perhaps –how ironic!) null and void as well.<<

<<No violation at all... alternate time line.
A good romp into possibilities without the baggage of canon.>>

SPOILERS -------->

>>Really?
Wasn't he always the one that counseled Kirk against interfering with the course of events?<<

      This wasn't a part of the natural timeline, and in situations where it was called for, such as the original series episode "City on the Edge of Forever," or the big screen feature "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" he actually went back in time with Kirk to correct the situation and set things straight. In "City" he tells Kirk that allowing Edith Keeler to die in an auto accident the way she was meant to was in fact necessary to set time right, otherwise "millions would die who did not die before" were Kirk to have done what his heart told him to do by saving her and allowing her to live, which thereby would have altered the timeline in an unnatural way.

There was nothing "natural" about Nero or his motives. He was a vengeful supervillain who didn't care about mowing down billions of people and destroying planets for nothing other than pure vengeance and spite. And there's just no way Spock would have let the destruction of his own homeworld happen like that without his attempting to correct it.

>>Did the change in the timeline change the universe, split off a new universe or become canceled out by some Higher Power over time...<<

      The movie indicates that the timeline is forever changed, whether it splits off to its own universe is purely hypothetical, and there's nothing in the film that stands to support that view.

I have a number of problems with the plot of this film, not the least of which is its erasing of all prior TOS-related canon, which is in fact its greatest sin, and its overall implications don’t even stop there because it renders all later modern Trek shows (save for “Enterprise” perhaps –how ironic!)

At least the movie makes it explicit that this is a brand new start. Enterprise threw out the entire ST canon while pretending to be a prequel to the TV series. Considering all the alternative timelines plots the various TV series used, it is very reasonable to start a new series in one of those numerous alternatives.

The true heart of the original Star Trek was the relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The personalities are true to the series. The relationships, what little that was shown, is also true. We will have to wait for the sequel to see how true to the spirit of the original Star Trek, this new series will be. However it looks good.

Danny

Spoiler Warning:

>>Considering all the alternative timelines plots the various TV series used, it is very reasonable to start a new series in one of those numerous alternatives.<<

        But that's not what happened --the old timeline was erased and replaced.

>>Saw the movie last night (before reading your "spoilers") and completely agree with your very thorough and well-written review.<<

            Thanks.

>>J.J. Abrams, who is already hurting my tiny brain with his peculiar time-travel peccadillos in the "Lost" TV series, really did a number on me this time by having Spock meet Spock. All the better SF authors I've read (but see below re: Asimov) seem to have agreed on some basic tenets of time travel, with Rule No. 1 being "Thou shalt not meet thyself". (Maybe they all secretly got together one night in Larry Niven's basement? To avoid this sort of conundrum?) Reductio ad absurdum, what if the elder Spock had killed the younger? Would the elder have then instantly winked out? If so, then he couldn't come back to kill his younger self... Oh my... Yeah, I know, alternate universe, but still...<<

            I'm surprised more movies don't take the "TimeCop" approach when it comes to this. I found that to be a very interesting take on it and approach to addressing it.

 The only thing we have to go by is the movie however and what happens and is said in it, and there's nothing to indicate anything other than that the old timeline has been wiped out, erased, and will be replaced by this new one, otherwise, what was the point of Nero destroying Vulcan 129 years in the past from the era from which he arrived? By that logic it would have been utterly and completely pointless, unless he knew he would change the future of the universe he inhabited, and thereby forever altering that particular timeline.

Nero's action is pure vengeance. There is no logical reason for it other than to inflict pain and suffering on Spock and all other Vulcans.  Nero is only the captain of a mining vessel, not a scientist. He probably does not how to restore the old time line with the change that Romulus is not destroyed.

        What was the point of Kirk and Spock going back in time in "The City on the Edge of Forever" to stop McCoy from preventing Edith Keeler from dying in a traffic accident back in the 1930s the way she was meant to?

The point there was to restore their new time line to the old time line. However they were able to do this as they could travel back in time to the same point as McCoy. However in the movie, the trip back in time for both Spock and Nero was a one way, one time trip cause by an accidental coincidence of the supernova and the red stuff (whatever that was). Spock could not travel back in time again to when Nero first enter the "present" and prevent him from capturing himself and destroying Vulcan.

 Okay, but again --nothing in the film to support that, and Spock knew how to time travel because he did it before on other occasions with Kirk.

But once again, Spock lacked the means to do it. In the Edge of Forever, they used a portal. The portal is alien technology and Spock does not know how to duplicate it. In the movie, Spock needed a supernova and the red stuff. The red stuff is gone and a product of future technology. Knowing that he can do something is not the same as being able to do it. The movie makes it clear. Spock is stuck in the past as it is.

Danny

--accidental coincidence of the supernova and the red stuff (whatever that was).--

Simply called red matter. If you never watched Alias (also J.J. Abrams) there was a mysterious "Rambaldi device" that was a likely power source that featured a red

--It also begs the question that if the original timeline hasn't been erased, then what was the point in the characters ever having traveled back in time to correct a problem, as I said previously.--

Because the supernova basically destroyed the Romulan race, but if there is was no Federation or Klingons then the Romulan empire would have stretched further and the Romulan race would have survived. (Baring a typical Twilight Zone twist where eliminating them make some other foe like the Borg take everything over).

>>An alternative time line creates an alternative universe.<<

        That distinction is neither made nor clarified anywhere in the movie. If it had been, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

>>H Beam Piper's Calvin series is an omniverse where alternative time lines create alternative universes.<<

         Are you saying that a person who went to see this new Trek movie would have to be already familiar with the Calvin series in order to reach that conclusion?

>>So there can be alternative coexisting time lines where both the old and the new Star Trek universes are true.<<

         Evidence throughout the series indicates that if the timeline is changed it can only be corrected by venturing into the past in order to deal with and address the problem, and once it's been handled, the timeline reverts back to normal. I'm not saying that's the only approach that can be offered by a writer or group of writers mind you, but here they made no attempt to indicate anything other than that the timeline would remain broken, which is not consistent with Spock's character besides.

>>This is a valid point but then so is the old and new Klingons difference which the TV series acknowledges but never explains.<<

         It was eventually explained in "Enterprise," and it's too bad they waited that long and didn't choose to deal with it in one of the better prior Trek shows instead.

>>Probably because the only explanation is "because we now have the budget to do it and thought it was too neat not to do regardless of the inconsistency."<<

         Right, so people by and large were willing to overlook it, but that was purely aesthetic by comparison, so it's not an adequate comparison at all to what happens here in this movie.

>>ST:TNG simply gave up and had the policy of "if you can explain it away in some way, you can do it regardless of how inconsistent it is with the canon."<<

         Berman and Braga were of that mindset, and it hurt the franchise, and it's worth pointing out that they're no longer around.

>>So part of the ST canon, is you can ignore the canon for a good story. The movie simply extends the concept to the new Star Trek.<<

         By wiping a good ninety percent of it or more out completely, which is utterly ridiculous. That's not the mark of good storytelling, and if anything takes the longstanding fan base totally for granted.

P.S. My first attempt at responding to your message was lost; I typed it on a new laptop that for some reason offered only standard text with no special fonts even though I was using IE 8 on that machine, and when I hit "Revise" to make a simple change the text completely vanished, which really ticked me off. So I booted up my desktop machine and had to start from scratch. ...Nice chatting with you.