It was impossible for me to envision anyone else being Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. The four supporting characters Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov were a little easier to imagine in different hands as their characters were never fully explored and realized. But the top three had such chemistry between them it seemed impossible to replicate. It was that whole lighting in a bottle phenomenon. While that statement is true, newcomers Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban came so much closer to it than I ever imagined they could – I was blown away! Karl Urban in particular embodies McCoy in such an honest and true way that I really believed I was watching DeForest Kelley when he was younger playing Dr. McCoy. Zachary Quinto nails several true Spock moments that solidify the character and Chris Pine plays the sexiest Captain the galaxy has ever seen! He definitely wasn’t channeling Shatner but was still 100% Captain James T. Kirk.

The special effects and action sequences are where I have the most problems with this movie. Star Trek space battle scenes are very different from Star Wars space battles; at least they were until this movie. Starfleet ships use phasers, which are solid beams of light firing from a few main locations typically on the saucer section. Rebel and Imperial ships in Star Wars use blasters which are short bursts of energy from cannon type armaments on the ships. Unfortunately J.J. decided that crazy frenetic cannon style blasters looked cooler and so all of the battle sequences have a very distinct Star Wars episodes I, II & III feel which was really disappointing. You never get that build up and tension leading into a battle or during the fighting of it that you get from all other Star Trek movies. Here you are thrown into these massive battles and it takes a while to figure out what the hell is happening. Normally the dialogue in a Trek movie will be, “Lock weapons on this and fire. Then lock different weapons on this and fire. Bring us around to attack from a different angle... and fire!” But here all we get is, “FIRE EVERYTHING!” and then craziness ensues.

I feel like if they could have stayed a bit more true to the franchise in a technical effects sense this movie could have been a total home run, but as it stands it will always be the least Star Trek of any Star Trek film. Some will say that’s a good thing – but those people are stupid.

Don’t get me wrong it was incredible to be sitting in a movie theater watching new Star Trek again for the first time in years! I had a silly grin of pure joy on my face for a lot of it and had a few spontaneous uncontrollable bursts of mini clapping to myself which only happens when I’m so pleased that I just don’t know what to do with ...