OK so I am not a big fan of the original Star Trek. I watched some Next Gen as a kid and looked forward to the Next Gen movies, but I hated that they added Kirk story lines in the first couple of movies, enough so that I stopped watching completely. To date about the only Star Trek movie I really loved was Galaxy Quest lol.

I saw the new movie on Friday and WOW. This is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen in my life!!! I saw it again on Sat and it continued to blow me away. Great writing, great actors, great effects, there wasn't a boring part in the whole movie for me. The only thing I thought was a little boring was showing 12 year old Kirk stealing the car and that was only becuase you see the whole seen in the trailer. If that was the first time I saw that scene I would have thought it was kinda neat. The score isn't the most memorable, but that is all I can really think of that was bad about this movie.

Anyone else see this and what did you think?

Saw it on Friday night in IMAX, and it was outstanding!

I'm probably a bit more of a Trek fan than it sounds like you are, Boba52, but not by much. I was always more a Star Wars guy growing up, and it wasn't until around high school that I had a few friends who were big ST fans, and they got me interested in watching Voyager (which was the newest show at the time). Funny enough, because of that, I still like Voyager better than some of the other ST series.

I have seen a smattering of the TOS and TNG episodes though, and I've seen all the 4 newer movies, and at least most of the 6 older ones. So, as a semi-casual fan, this new movie was absolutely amazing.

I knew just enough about the older stuff to recognize a lot of the homages. Karl Urban is freakin' spot on with Dr. McCoy, and he cracked me up every time he was on screen. I thought every person did an awesome job with their characters. I was most apprehensive about Simon Pegg as Scotty, but he knocked it out of the park as well.

Yeah, the car-stealing scene seemed a tad drawn out and semi-unnecessary, but it was kind of a cool lead-in, and it made sense to include something like that before jumping straight to the bar scene.

We're planning to go see it again tomorrow night.

From the moment someone told me this was a time-travel movie, I didn't have high hopes for this flick, and it didn't disappoint. I hate time-travel stories as a general rule and out of 11 ST movies, 4 of them have centered on this concept. Well, when I say it didn't disappoint, I mean it didn't exceed my expectations. But I admit I came out of the theater absolutely livid about what the people in charge of this did to the established storyline. For the first time in my life, I wanted to demand a refund from the theater. And I've seen some really BAD movies in my day.

The reason I hate time-travel as a story concept is that most of the time it's used as a plot device to accomplish the goals of the writers and producers, even if it doesn't make sense for the characters. Heroes' Hiro Nakamura is a great example of how time-travel is a ridiculously stupid plot device. In one scene, he can jump in and grab the "bad man" and blink out, but in the next scene he'll stand there and listen to the 3-minute soliloquy and then get his ass kicked.

Nothing about this movie was any different from anything time-travel based that has ever happened in Star Trek before. There were the same inconsistencies in character behavior as there always have been.

I don't want to spoil the movie too much for people who haven't seen it, but let me put it this way. In Star Trek 3 Kirk says to Sarek, "If there was that much at stake, Spock would have found a way!" referring to the fact that he was about to die to save the Enterprise at the end of Star Trek 2.

Does the Spock (the REAL Spock, not the young actor) strike you as someone who was anything other than nonchalant and indifferent about the situation? The Spock I remember would have been busy calculating the correct trajectory for a good ole slingshot around the sun to restore the time-line. This is what I mean when I discuss character inconsistencies.

The other problem with this story is that young Spock can go through his whole life - assuming he lives to the ripe old age of 201 - as Nimoy's Spock did - and then fix where he went wrong. IF he wants to wait that long, that is. Or more to the point, that anyone can at any time just come along and change whatever, whenever. It has always been a problem in Star Trek, and this movie was no exception.

It's too bad they can't just write a solid story without resorting to all the time travel crap that ruins the story not because of what happened but because it demands that character intelligence and character establishment be ignored to the point such character development is neutered. (I have never gotten over the way Picard was treated in Generations.)

The plot problems aside, I enjoyed the character interactions. The opening was absolutely awesome. I remember thinking as the Star Trek logo came up that it was "all downhill from there." There was just no way to top that opening scene. It was probably the best Star Trek scene ever done. I thought they had a solid cast and there were some really strong scenes that reminded me of watching TOS when I was growing up. The final fight scene where Kirk and Spock ran around the Romulan ship made me feel like I was 8 years old again.

All in all I give it a 5 out of 10. I'd rank it higher but I was really pissed about the alternate reality event in the middle of the movie, not for what it was, but for the fact that no one seemed all that interested in fixing it.

The action sceens were horriable/bad. Zach is no Learnoid Neomy. Does Zach have any actting range? He is the same in Heroes. Heck he is the same in interviews on talk shows.

Compaired to other star trek movies/shows. I give this a 3.5/10

That can go up and down by .5 dependding on what other si-fi movies/shows you throw in their.

Compaired to movies in generally. I give this a 9.9/10.

Mabe 9.8.

Kirk was in 1 next generations movie.

Spock got stranded on hoth.

LOL, yeah. I saw a good article about how Star Trek and Star Wars have sort of blended together over the years. Very evident with this latest one. I also got a kick out of how the giant beast on the ice planet had a vague resemblance to the Cloverfield monster.

And here's a hilarious comment I saw on io9.com regarding the ST/SW relationship:



I just cracked up while reading that yesterday.

I have to agree, I was semi-disappointed when I heard they would be using the time travel Deus Ex Machina type of approach. But when I really started to think about it, I realized that time travel has always been a big part of the Star Trek universe. Heck one of the biggest fan favorite episodes (Trials and Tribblations) is based on time travel (right, am I remembering that correctly?). So yeah, it's kind of a cheap cop out, but at the same time, it's not THAT unusual for the series.

The thing that does seem a tad weird about it, is that it's really more alternate reality than it is time travel I guess. Because the whole notion of "well, old Spock can just tell young Spock, and then young Spock can make sure A, B, or C never happen" doesn't really work here. Plus, I gathered from the story, that old Spock DID try to set things straight, but he got captured by Nero, then banished to the ice planet. I can only assume that old Spock stayed stranded on the planet because he didn't want to take the risk of exposing himself to young Spock at that time. I don't know. Of course, we also know that Scotty had been on the planet for quite some time without contact from the Federation, so maybe an opportunity for Spock to get off-planet hadn't presented itself yet.

It did seem sort of dumb to me that Nero waited 25 years to blow up Vulcan. I mean, why wait? Maybe there was more info in the prequel comics to help with that. Or maybe I just missed those details when we saw it.

We're planning to go see it again tonight, I think. I'll let you know what I think after a 2nd viewing.

He had to wait the 25 years for Spock to show up with the red matter in order to capture him to destroy Vulcan. Granted I don't know how Nero knew exactly when Spock would come out of the black hole?

Also yeah alot of Star Wars things to see. My favorite was Obi Spock showing up with the torch to scare away the "Sandpeople" I mean red monster guy to save whiny Kirk.

The difference - and the inherent problem for me - is that everyone just seemed so indifferent about the situation. Time-travel is not unusual but the desire of the characters NOT to set things right, is. Here was the movie in 10 minutes:

Nero: Hey we're in another sector of space! And wait, this is the past? Well, Spock should be along any moment now. Let's just sit RIGHT HERE and wait for him, even if it takes 25 years!

Flash-forward 25 years...
Kirk: I'm looking for love, and I wouldn't mind commanding my own ship while I'm at it.
Pike: Learn about Starfleet, Lu.. err, Jim.

Nero: Hey, there's Spock! Nab him and then desert him on that planet with a telescope aimed at Vulcan!

(back on Earth)
Pike: Everyone report to the Enterprise, whether you are supposed to be on the ship or not. Kirk, I know you are fresh out of Starfleet but I just met Leonard Nimoy and he says you are destined to be the captain, so I'll go ahead and make you first officer.
I'm going to go get infected with a bug that has no point in the story, now. Bye.

Spock: OMG Nero is going to destroy the planet, I've got to save my parents! (10 minutes later) Mommy, no, don't stand near the edge! For the first time in Star Trek history, the transporters have a warm-up time.

(back on the ship)
Spock: Well, my Mom's dead, and I'm in command. I guess I'll just wait to see what the humans do about it.
Kirk: That's stupid.
Spock: We're passing some planet with a cool climate. Jettison that man near the polar cap, close to that big telescope.

(on Delta Vega)
Pod computer: I'm supposed to tell you to stay in the pod, but if you do the plot of the movie doesn't advance. Get out, kid.
Kirk: Fine. OMG a big monster! OMFG a BIGGER monster!! I'm running for the cave.
Old Spock: Don't worry, they don't like fire and I somehow have this big torch to play with.
Kirk: Holy stang! You're Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek!
Old Spock: Yeah, and you're Jim Kirk. I think we were friends but I haven't taken my medicine today.
Kirk: Wait. How'd you know I'd be in this cave?
Old Spock: I read the script, duh.
Kirk: So we're friends?
Old Spock: Sure. We were best buds before Nero changed history. I was calculating a plan to sling-shot around the sun, but if we're not best buds, that's more important. Let's walk together in the freezing cold to the Starfleet base. You need to meet Mr. Scott anyway.

(in the base)
Old Spock: Well, I need a nap. The two of you get back to the Enterprise and start making friends with me.
Kirk: Whatever, man. I just want to get back to that communications chick.
Old Spock: Don't count on it, kid.

(on the ship)
Kirk: Spock, we're supposed to be friends, but I just wanna be the captain. My dead dad can beat up your dead mom.
Spock: AARRRGGH. Well, stang, emotion. You can be the captain.
Kirk: Woot!!!

(1 hour later)
Kirk: My name is James T. Kirk, Nero. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Nero: Wait. I want to destroy Earth first.
Kirk: Umm, no.

(back at Starfleet)
Spock: Hey, there's a logical chance that you are me when I'm old.
Old Spock: Yeah, I am. Are you and Kirk getting along.
Spock: Yes.
Old Spock: Good. As long as you guys are best buds, the universe can go to hell in a handbag.
Spock: Yeah, that was a real bummer. Okay, see ya.

(down the hall)
Starfleet admiral: Well, Kirk, we were going to expel you, but you somehow convinced Admiral Pike to do your bidding and make you captain, even though you have no real experience on a ship.
Kirk: It had nothing to do with that bug in his brain, I assure you.
Starfleet admiral: Wait. What?
Kirk: Nevermind.
Starfleet admiral: Well, I guess since someone changed the timeline we should do something about it.
Kirk: No, I don't think so.
Pike: No, I don't think so.
Starfleet admiral: Well, whatever you guys think. I'm gonna go get some lunch. At least Earth wasn't destroyed.
Spock: Yeah cause then I would have NO home and I might actually CARE about what just happened.

Pfft.

Wow Dennis. I mean seriously. I start to wonder if ANY film could ever live up to your standards.

I mean sheesh. Most of the stuff you complained about was simple story telling.

Who cares that Kirk happens to end up on the planet within relative reach of Scotty.





How? The red matter was all destroyed. Nobody but Kirk and old Spock even knew that there was a time-travel aspect to the whole thing. And Kirk didn't exactly strike me as a 'fix it' kind of guy. More like 'just survive it'. Maybe that's just different from how the old series characters acted, and I'm not as familiar with those, so it didn't rub me the wrong way perhaps.



This is probably the one thing that bothered me the most. Though I'm going to have to pay closer attention to it next time I watch it. On the one hand, I was baffled trying to figure out why it took 25 years for Spock to come out of the wormhole, and how Nero's bunch of miners were smart enough to know where that would be. But I could've sworn that when old Spock was telling the story, it sounded like he came out of the wormhole right behind Nero, just shortly after the Kelvin was destroyed. But if that's the case, then was old Spock on the ice planet for 25 years? What the heck was Nero doing all that time then? Yeah, that one bugged me a bit. I mean, we know Nero killed an entire Klingon fleet, but for what purpose? I guess just because they stumbled upon his location probably.



So there's some early history there that may not be fully explained. What would YOU have done different? I thought it was a great way to move from Kirk's early life to the actual meat of the movie without getting too hung up in the early stuff.



Why is this so unbelievable? I thought it fit perfectly with Nero's character. Classic revenge/punishment scenario.



OK, this was CLEARLY explained in the film. Bones snuck Kirk on board. Kirk made a good deduction of the facts before him, and warned Pike that they were flying into a trap. And Pike clearly already had a liking for Kirk, and it probably wasn't Pike's decision to leave Kirk on Earth, so I thought Pike was, in some way, glad to see that Kirk had snuck along. In all honesty, we are made to believe that Kirk is one of the best officers in Star Fleet, so why WOULDN'T Pike leave him as 2nd in command behind Spock?



I thought it had a point. Nero was using torture methods to get information out of Pike. It might've seemed like it didn't have a point to the story because they didn't really dwell on it very long, but that's part of the good skill in editing this film. Didn't spend a lot of time on things that could easily be inferred by the audience instead. We know Nero went to earth, so therefore, the torture bug must have worked. No need to spend wasteful minutes on it.



Warm-up or lock-on? I don't know enough about Trek technological history as to how accurate that was. But they had JUST gone through the whole lock-on thing with Kirk/Sulu a few minutes earlier. I don't know, again, could be unfamiliarity with the franchise history, but I thought it was fine.



Hmm....maybe the escape pod had some limited controls? Maybe Kirk tried to aim for the telescope once he got close to the planet and noticed it? I don't know, there's a billion different explanations here that are all plausible. And I thought the interactions on the bridge in this part were perfectly believable. Spock was doing the LOGICAL thing, which is what he always does.


I don't have time right now to comment on any of the rest of it. But overall, I feel like you've got this enormous expectation that absolutely no movie could ever stand up to. Seriously, what should have been done differently? Was it just the acting? I guess I just don't understand. I thought the film was phenomenal, and one of the best sci-fi films I've seen in years. Just makes me wonder what is SO different for you guys that you'd rate it so low, when 99% of the rest of the people who are seeing it are coming out with vastly different responses. I guess it doesn't matter, and I'm not trying to argue, just curious.

WOW lol. I guess I just didn't have that high of expectations and was more than glad this movie exceeded them. Sometimes you just have to sit back munch some popcorn and set your phasers to "enjoy".

No, I'm not arguing, either. I think you missed the point of some of my spoof, and when I have more time I will be happy to discuss it with you.

There's no reason to believe that if those guys knew they were in an alternate reality - and it wasn't just old Spock and Kirk who knew, it was announced on the bridge of the Enterprise - that they didn't tell anyone else.

It's not "high expectations," but I do demand character consistency. This movie was lacking it in the worst way. Spock stopped what he was doing in ST2 so he could put his "katra" in McCoy, but he didn't seem one goddamn bit interested in "fixing" the time travel issue. And this is the same person who calculated the slingshot trajectory to go back in time in ST4, so we know he knows how to do that.

It was just ridiculous. The only thing about this movie that was different from any other ST time-travel story was the outcome, and the character reaction to it.

What would I have preferred? How about a solid story in which the characters put their lives on the line without having to push the plot at the expense of good character development and good character consistency. If the whole movie had been like the beginning sequence without the time travel crap, it would have been brilliant!

I could have settled for the "reimagining" concept over a time-travel story that requires character apathy to work. This is based on the fact that characters in Star Trek have NEVER NEVER been apathetic about fixing what they see as mistakes to the time line before. NOT. EVER.

But now the plot demands it.

I'm sorry if that offends you, I know you liked it. But I have different expectations from a story than you do (not necessarily higher). I just want it to be believable and consistent. This was absolutely NOT.

I liked most of the other ST movies that have been made. Even when they seemed silly at least the characters were consistent - most of the time (curses Generations under breath). It didn't even bother me that history changed in First Contact when Picard went to fight the Borg, because it was completely in character with how Picard had been written.

For me it just boils down to the simple fact that the characters didn't feel real. I didn't care what happened to them because they didn't care what happened to them. It was so out of character it was pathetic.

Had this been just any other movie and not Star Trek, I could have overlooked it. But this was an established storyline with an established set of characters and behaviors and they threw it out the window so they could do what they wanted to the plot.

That just doesn't fly with me. It's okay if others can like it and forgive it - most of my friends liked the movie and that's fine - but it's not for me. Probably because of my education background in creative writing - I'm a lot harsher about the expectations of writers because I know what they are taught, and when they shirk the rules it gets under my skin.

My wife thought it was silly, too, for different reasons. She is not a TOS fan and knew almost nothing of the characters or the original show. She said afterward it reminded her of the movie "Space Camp" lol.

LOL at everything Dennis (Dennis?) said.



How? The red matter was all destroyed. Nobody but Kirk and old Spock even knew that there was a time-travel aspect to the whole thing. And Kirk didn't exactly strike me as a 'fix it' kind of guy. More like 'just survive it'. Maybe that's just different from how the old series characters acted, and I'm not as familiar with those, so it didn't rub me the wrong way perhaps.

That is very different. In star Trek they allways do their best to fix the timeline. Regular spock could start doing some calculations for a good old sling shot around the sun. Mabe regular Spock is old, and afraid of getting the corriordantes wrong and blowing up the whole ship. You see thats the down side of doing that.



This is probably the one thing that bothered me the most. Though I'm going to have to pay closer attention to it next time I watch it. On the one hand, I was baffled trying to figure out why it took 25 years for Spock to come out of the wormhole, and how Nero's bunch of miners were smart enough to know where that would be. But I could've sworn that when old Spock was telling the story, it sounded like he came out of the wormhole right behind Nero, just shortly after the Kelvin was destroyed. But if that's the case, then was old Spock on the ice planet for 25 years? What the heck was Nero doing all that time then? Yeah, that one bugged me a bit. I mean, we know Nero killed an entire Klingon fleet, but for what purpose? I guess just because they stumbled upon his location probably.

For Spock it was a couple of seconds, mabe 10 seconds? For the messed up romulan with tattioos, it 25 years.



So there's some early history there that may not be fully explained. What would YOU have done different? I thought it was a great way to move from Kirk's early life to the actual meat of the movie without getting too hung up in the early stuff.

kirk's sinspiration for joinning was his father. His dad is now dead, so what is it now?



Why is this so unbelievable? I thought it fit perfectly with Nero's character. Classic revenge/punishment scenario.

They were thinking star trek II, the warth of khan. Same thing with the bug sceen.



OK, this was CLEARLY explained in the film. Bones snuck Kirk on board. Kirk made a good deduction of the facts before him, and warned Pike that they were flying into a trap. And Pike clearly already had a liking for Kirk, and it probably wasn't Pike's decision to leave Kirk on Earth, so I thought Pike was, in some way, glad to see that Kirk had snuck along. In all honesty, we are made to believe that Kirk is one of the best officers in Star Fleet, so why WOULDN'T Pike leave him as 2nd in command behind Spock?

Ha Ha at Pike being left in a wheel chair, a la TOS.



I thought it had a point. Nero was using torture methods to get information out of Pike. It might've seemed like it didn't have a point to the story because they didn't really dwell on it very long, but that's part of the good skill in editing this film. Didn't spend a lot of time on things that could easily be inferred by the audience instead. We know Nero went to earth, so therefore, the torture bug must have worked. No need to spend wasteful minutes on it.

This a key point is Start Trek II. So this was a epic fail.



Warm-up or lock-on? I don't know enough about Trek technological history as to how accurate that was. But they had JUST gone through the whole lock-on thing with Kirk/Sulu a few minutes earlier. I don't know, again, could be unfamiliarity with the franchise history, but I thought it was fine.

Who cares.



[/quote]Hmm....maybe the escape pod had some limited controls? Maybe Kirk tried to aim for the telescope once he got close to the planet and noticed it? I don't know, there's a billion different explanations here that are all plausible. And I thought the interactions on the bridge in this part were perfectly believable. Spock was doing the LOGICAL thing, which is what he always does.[/quote]

This seemed like a sceen to just kill off some random chacter.

I don't have time right now to comment on any of the rest of it. But overall, I feel like you've got this enormous expectation that absolutely no movie could ever stand up to. Seriously, what should have been done differently? Was it just the acting? I guess I just don't understand. I thought the film was phenomenal, and one of the best sci-fi films I've seen in years. Just makes me wonder what is SO different for you guys that you'd rate it so low, when 99% of the rest of the people who are seeing it are coming out with vastly different responses. I guess it doesn't matter, and I'm not trying to argue, just curious.[/quote]


To who are you speakking to when oyu say you guys?

Fair enough Boris. I spent the end of the movie waiting for something like you described in ST4 that was going to "fix" the alter reality deal. I just thought it took a lot of balls from a writing standpoint to leave Vulcan destroyed and everyone in the alter reality deal knowing now that all the previous movies and shows now mean absolutely nothing in future films. I'll bet that cheesed off as many trekkies as Spock and Uhura getting it on.

I guess alot of my prospective comes from being a huge Joss Whedon fan. I really enjoy being surprised and when you have a writer willing to kill a major character right away or mess with items deemed holy and untouchable I really enjoy that.

Oh but see that's the thing. I'm a Whedon fan too (except for Firefly/Serenity, that was foolish television and not Whedon's fault). If they had explained WHY they couldn't change it or if this had been a TNG-setting movie (ie the Enterprise goes forward in time to see the destruction of Vulcan and then returns to their original time), I could have gone for it. The problem is that the principles of time-travel are very easy to manipulate in Star Trek. It is a tired plot device, and the only real question is why didn't something like this happen sooner (the answer of course is that the main characters of the show were always committed to stopping it, btw, but not this time because the writers didn't want them to).

It's has nothing at all to do with the destruction of Vulcan and everything to do with how the characters in the movie took a 180 from their previous incarnations. And all for the "shock value." It was a cheap tactic that put the final nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned. It's just more evidence that they've run out of ideas and the only solution they were willing to attempt was reboot.

Give us more scenes like the one in the opening sequence sans the time-travel stupidity and I'm hooked. But they don't have the balls for that.

I am going to chime in here. This might not help but I am going to try it.

The Good:
McCoy: I don't know how they found someone that pulled him off that well. His voice was virtually identical. Sure some of his lines were fanboy fodder but he did a good job.
Scotty: I am a big Pegg fan. He did a great Scotty. The way we met him was a bit contrived but I liked him. His little buddy definately screamed "Toy line" though.

The Bad:
The Ice Planet: I have to agree that was a bit thrown together in the contrived manner (The only planet with a great view of Vulcan's demise and Spock had to send Kirk there by coincidence). And I, too, noticed the eerie similiarities of the big creature to the small minions from Cloverfield. I am sure that enough speculation will happen about that in the Abramsverse.
The Gunfight in the ship: Ok, I get that we had an old school shoot out but the most important part of the entire "up yours Federation" plan and there were NO guards there. Not even the door being closed.

Observation:
1) Apparently in the longevity of the Romulans, clumsiness was completely removed from the gene pool. Therefore, the entire ship, the Nurada, is not compliant with OSHA. I know it worked for the Death Star but sometimes....

Rationalization:
The 25 year wait: I am not sure how badly the Nurada was damaged by the Kelvin's crash and it's nearness to that star, I am sure that self-preservation took over. The Nurada left the star's grav well and probably limped off. Given the lack of safety concerns, i am sure an ample supply of the crew, uncertain how many it held, might have died. Being that last of the Romulans and not wanting to rejoin the Romulan Empire, Niro (really?) decided to use his ship as an Ark. Considering the technology, they probably did what they could with pirated debris while maintaining a vigilent watch over that sector of space know that at some point in time Spock would arrive. They couldn't off planet's without the Maybalene Nail Polish supply... er I mean Red Matter so they did what they could to survive and breed. I am unsure of the growth rate of Romulan children but maybe that was what they were doing for 25 years. Just a hypothesis. I am certain either a Director's Cut with additional footage may come out to explain the time lapse

Cool.

As I said, I'm sort of a casual ST fan, so I don't know a lot of the little things about how the universe has run in the past. Maybe that's why Abrams' was advertising it as a ST for the new generation, so to speak. As he maybe knew he was messing with pretty well established things from the older series.

Then again, there's still some fairly simple explanation for things. 30 years ago, a 'slingshot around the sun' was good enough in science fiction as a plot device for time travel. So was Superman flying backwards around the earth. But in the past 30 years, our science has advanced enough that most audiences wouldn't buy that kind of an explanation. Not to say it isn't the only one. But what I saw on the screen was this: the red matter is what made the time travel possible. And at the end of the film, it was all destroyed. So, without the red matter, and without using something stolen from TOS that obviously doesn't work with modern science, there was no EASY way to have the characters desire to fix the timeline.

Who knows, maybe that will be the driving theme for the next film.

Again, like I said, I'm just not familiar enough with any of the TV series (seen a smattering of episodes here and there), and only vaguely remember events from the older films, so I have a pretty tough time knowing what the characters "should" act like. From what you're saying, if they were that different, I could see why it would be disappointing. On the flip side though, it WAS an alternate reality.

You're forgetting something.

Nimoy. Original Spock. He is the rogue factor. Even if everything else you say is correct (and I would be willing to accept the liberties taken with the younger cast), Old Spock was completely neutered. He's more worried about whether Kirk and he will still end up friends, and whether Kirk will captain the Enterprise (which he somehow ended up with about 10 years too early, btw), than he is about fixing the time line.

I guess it doesn't really matter if science has evolved past the absurdity of TOS and TNG, the point is there are established ways within the setting of the show to induce time travel. It was pretty much the running theme of Enterprise, which of course tanked.

I can only hope that the next movie will be about fixing the time line, and the moral dilemma of choosing one timeline over another. That is something that has never really been explored in ST.

That would be cool. Not too sure how to do that in a film though. I've seen that sort of stuff in novels though, as it's easier to discuss that sort of moral dilemma type of stuff in that medium I think. Could be interesting though.

I'm just having a hard time picturing Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy having a teary-eyed goodbye as they make the final correction to fix everything, and old Spock disappears, for good, a la Back to the Future style.