THE JJ ABRAMS STAR TREK DOES NOT HOLD UP

Time-travel is always a cheap gimmick in science-fiction - a way to solve plot problems, especially when it is not central to the story. Abrams' film does have good qualities and is entertaining but it is pure cornball and really disrespects the source material. From the cheap plastic sets (dome on the bridge, pool light covers as transporter pads), idiotic choices like making Engineering look like a brewery and having an endless amount of shuttle crafts and especially that stupid rock-dwarf sidekick, to the lens-flare aesthetic choice it really comes across as more of a children's movie upon repeated viewing. The most ridiculous aspect of the film is how the characters we know from previous incarnations of the story are "re-imagined" here and essentially put into the Plot Scrambler and somehow they end up sitting in the right chairs on the bridge. Rumors about as to what JJ's nest Star Trek film (now shooting) will be about: possibly a Harry Mudd story, or the end of Christopher Pike, or yet another Khan story.