Saw it this morning & was quite impressed. I loved how this Star Trek universe is firmly rooted in TOS lore, yet has no problems severing ties in favor of a unique plot point. While I hope this doesn’t mean we should expect armageddon in subsequent movies, it IS nice to know that nothing seems to be off-limits.
As for the cast, I can only nitpick at Chekov’s owerly-heawy accent, especially in his first scene. Other than that, I fully accept these new actors in these roles. I used to think of Karl Urban as Eomer from Lord of the Rings, but now I have to think of him as DeForest Kelley, cos DAMN did he evoke the man on an eeeeerie level. I do wish this movie could’ve been made sooner though, Leonard Nimoy really tore me out of the story with his deteriorated speech. Obviously it’s not his fault, but it’s like seeing Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3 where he’s clearly too old for the role. Yes I know Spock’s supposed to be old in this movie, but it’s still jarring.
If you loved this movie, I’d highly recommend the Countdown comic prequel miniseries, which gives much greater backstory detail regarding Nero. It’s too bad a little more of this couldn’t be included in the movie, but I suppose the filmmakers felt the mind-meld scene gave enough exposition.
I’m VERY anxious for a sequel now. And a BK Kids Meal.