This is a mouse-over spoiler prevention post.
I just got back from STB. Overall, I really enjoyed it. It has plenty of touching moments such as Spock being notified of Ambassador Spock’s death and drinking to Kirk’s dead father. There was plenty of humor between Spock and McCoy that was as good as their interactions in TOS. The bad guys felt more like TNG bad guys but that didn’t bother me.
At lunch today, I was talking to a co-worker about the other movies and he said something about “destroying the Enterprise had become a cliche” in the movies. I’m sure he’ll get a kick out of the first 10 minutes.
A solid B+/A-.
Saw it last night and thought it was a solid meh. Like a throw away episode from a tv series scaled up to 11. And the twist at the end made zero sense, rendering much of what happened before even less sensical. A passable way to spend two hours, but nothing to write home about.
Yeah, but I want one of those coffee cups,I’ll tell ya that for nothing.
The thing I liked about it was the way that it focused on the relationships between various crew members, instead of depending on our memory of characters played by different actors in a different fictional universe.
It raised the fascinating question about ‘what does 23rd century music sound like, anyway?’, but it didn’t answer it. All we know is that it makes Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys sound old-fashioned.
Certainly worth seeing in cinemas rather than waiting for the small screen!
I was seriously let down by it. It was fun but cheesy, which I don’t necessarily mind, but I had several major complaints:
(1) It was very poorly directed as far as actually being able to see what was happening. The whole time near the beginning when the Enterprise was being split into pieces, I had no idea who was where. And later on when they were in the saucer section, and they fired some rockets, I literally had no idea what was going on, or what ended up happening. And what exactly happened with the portal at the end? Did it open before Kirk flipped the last lever? And lots of the weapon and swarming effects were simultaneously hard to follow and very CGI
(2) It was totally predictable. Basically every time I thought to myself “don’t trust her” or “uh oh” or anything like that, I was right.
(3) The villain was pretty lame. In addition to being nearly a total retread of the villain from two movies ago (mysterious figure never before heard of has grudge based on actions in the past, gets ahold of advanced mining equipment and uses it as a weapon), his motivation, and abilities, and appearance, just didn’t ever make sense. So he was a human captain? And his ship got lost in a nebula? And he went insane with rage that Starfleet didn’t come find him? And had hacking abilities that were relevant a century later? And was a vampire? And hated the idea of teamwork? And looked like a cardassian? What a waste of Idris Elba.
(4) As is often the case in movies like this, it all depended on nearly everyone living in an advanced civilization being hit by a stupid stick. Hey, here’s an idea: see how those two people are having a fistfight on top of a skyscraper where one of them has a weapon (mysterious and ancient, of course, but effective against human biology, of course) that will kill millions of people. How about, I dunno, sending the police? Or beaming them out of there? Or beaming a bunch of sleep gas into there? Or anything other than sitting around making it super obvious we’re in a movie because of course our hero has to be the one to save the day?
I just came from watching it. It was fun enough, but how did Uhura figure out who Krall was? Were the clues all there?
And at the end, when Kirk toasted “to absent friends” as the camera focused on Chekov, was that deliberate?
Man was this a lot of fun! The casting for this crew really was spot on. Great character moments, awesome visuals and a real Star Trek message at the end. The terrible trailers really did this a disservice as I really enjoyed this.
Damn I love and miss Star Trek.
Side note: Did the Space Station Yorktown remind anyone else of Mass Effect’s Citadel?
Liked it, didn’t love it. I thought the villain’s motivation wasn’t fully explained or written very well, even if the performance was great.
Really enjoyed it. First time I’ve been in a theater in years where the audience cheered at the end.
I did sometimes feel like I was watching a long Star Trek episode rather than a movie. Not really a problem for me. 
I like Star Trek, tv and movies both.
I will ask the same thing I always ask. Was there a good science fiction premise? I mean, some underlying intellectual theme that the movie was exploring, using fictional science as a backdrop?
I’m glad the banter and character is back, but that was always sugar on top of what I mention above.
There were themes of family and loss, and the perils of exploration, and the bitterness that can come from being abandoned.
But it wasn’t particularly deep, IMO, mostly just set up for well done and well performed action scenes (and quips).
Just saw it - snuck in after watching Ghostbusters. Just another wham bang, run around, twisty turny, what the hell is going on movie like so many I don’t enjoy. My fave part was when Spock recommended Bones accompany him, and Kirk said, “He’ll LOVE that!” 
Does this movie take place in a time before, during or after TOS? I mainly ask because of Amb Spock’s death.
It’s an alternate timeline, with the extra older version of Spock explained if you see the first of the new batch of movies (the '09 one).
So who were the folk in the picture at the end supposed to be - Shatner, Nimot, et al. This young crew in the future?
It didn’t do much for those of us with a small level of appreciation for plot coherence, that’s for sure.
But a fun SFX-filled summer flick anyway.
A picture Ambassador Spock (old Spock) kept from his previous life in the old alternate universe. In the '09 Trek, old Spock was transported back from the future, changing the timeline forever, but he still had memories of the previous timeline (the TOS and 80s/90s Star Trek movies), and presumably a few artifacts.
I liked it, but agree it was not great – better than “Into Darkness”
I like Jayla. Good to see Greg Grunburg, who may be the only actor to have speaking lines in both Star Trek and Star Wars
Star Trek problems are often ultimately resolved with a fistfight
The fact that they were going to use the music was obvious, but still fun.
I almost cried with the original crew photograph, and the tributes to Nimoy and Anton
Brian
I love when she slouches down into the captain’s chair and looks at Kirk, like, what, this is MY chair.