As one who has seen EVERYTHING Star Trek from all of the old shows through the Next Generation and all the spin offs, I was a little wary of seeing Hollywood try to restart the whole Trek franchise. Could they pull it off?? What kind of story would they go with?? Would this new Kirk be someone I could buy into??
I think J.J. Abrams did a decent job.
The previews had me wondering...we know that much of the actors on the old show did not like Shat. That has been talked all over through interviews and different shows. So, what does Abrams do with the script? They make all the team be at odds, but they all end up being "friends" at the end. Kirk and Sulu fighting side by side on the enemy ship and then Kirk even saves Sulu's life. (We know George Takei wasn't exactly Shat's best friend and spoke publicly about his disdain for the Shat) So, in the new film we take a leap at the two of them being closer.
I was shocked at how the relationship between Spock and Uhura was so public. Lots of kissing and closeness and PDA in there. Wasn't expecting that. The way Scotty was injected into the story was almost disheartening. I never saw Scotty as a "rebel". But, overall i accepted how they brought it all together. Kirk always was somewhat arrogant, narcasistic and a loud character. The script really through him over the edge to bring him back. Spock struggling with his humanity and emotions is taken to another level. Again, I almost didn't like the "rebel" side of his character, but overall it was well done.
The real test here will be what Abram's plan is to do nexxt with the storyline and whether or not all of the actors can be brought back to do another film. I'm not a big fan of having to change actors as we jump from one film to a sequel and on to a three-quel. If Abram's can't hang onto to at least the big three (Kirk, Spock & Bones) it will be hard to keep this going.
Overall, I think the new Star Trek movie was well done.