I can forgive the differences from the Original Series. This Star Trek is, after all, a reboot. Different timeline, presence of an extra Spock, absence of Vulcan, obligatory alien sex scenes, awkward Spock/Uhura romance - bring it on, Hollywood, I'm ready.
But the new Enterprise has a glitch I am unwilling to overlook: Kirk. Chris Pine does a great job portraying the little butthead that the new Kirk is, but the presence of this character in the Star Trek universe, even a rebooted one, presents some basic storytelling problems.
Miss me yet?
The new Kirk is flawed. Awesome. He has motivation (more or less). Great. But does he have means? In not just the first film, but also in the second, Christopher Pike has to exert his full influence to get Kirk a command despite the latter's total inexperience, incompetence, and blatant idiocy. I wanted to like this new Kirk, but he's given everything on a replicated platter, a sort of proving grounds for a man that Pike says has what it takes.
Why do you say that, Mr. Pike? Because his father was a great captain? The power of blood connections is not a strong appeal to a generation weaned on the Shakespearean adage, "to thine own self be true."
Perhaps it's because he sees something great in this pervy drunk. Again, not a compelling way to tell this story: In the Star Trek universe, Starfleet captains go through years of training to simply get onto a starship, much less in a post of command. Then they spend years working their way up to captain. This Kirk gets to be the hero captain because... it's Star Trek, dammit.
In the end, young and sexy are the only qualifications for this Star Trek crew, which leaves a huge sense of Non Sequiter in what should have been a fun new take on one of Science Fiction's most beloved franchises.
Fans shouldn't mind the changing faces, only the changing story-standards
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