Mainstream Media Reviews

Most online publications have provided their take on Star Trek. Now it is the mainstream media's turn (ie TV and newspapers). Over all the reviews continue to remain very positive but not quite as universal as they were from online sources. Below a few for your enjoyment. I picked up my tickets already so the reviews are more just for other perpectives rather then an assist in deciding if it is money well spent.

Roger Ebert (2.5/4)

The Gene Roddenberry years, when stories might play with questions of science, ideals or philosophy, have been replaced by stories reduced to loud and colorful action. Like so many franchises, it’s more concerned with repeating a successful formula than going boldly where no “Star Trek” has gone before. Perhaps the next one will engage these characters in a more challenging and devious story, one more about testing their personalities than re-establishing them. In the meantime, you want space opera, you got it.

New York Daily News

The new "Star Trek" is more than a coat of paint on a space-age wagon train. It's an exciting, stellar-yet-earthy blast that successfully blends the hip and the classic. And while it has young actors in iconic roles, don't worry Trekkies, a time-travel plot acknowledges previous stories.

Entertainment Weekly (A-)

There's a time-tripping plot that, frankly, could have been trippier (not to mention a bit more, you know, logical). Maybe that's because it's basically an excuse to shoehorn Leonard Nimoy into the picture. Excuse granted: He's as dry, and spry, as ever — a tribal-elder aristocrat. I do wish Karl Urban, as Bones, lit his short fuse with a bit more idionsyncracy, but Zoë Saldana gives Uhura a sultry spark, and casting the puppyish Simon Pegg as the hyperkinetic Scotty is genius. As for Pine and Quinto, they really do feel, by the end, like Kirk and Spock. With a crew like this, you can welcome the future.

Rolling Stone (3.5/4)

Abrams has banished irony and easy cynicism from his Star Trek universe. And I will banish spoilers from this review. The script is by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (they did Transformers, which this jury will disregard), and damned if I know what they're talking about. It might as well be Duplicity in Space when they drag in time travel. Know what? Don't care. Star Trek creates an alternate universe you want to get lost in. It's an irresistible invitation for fun. What more can you ask of a summer movie?

Associated Press

It's a daring and exciting approach that's sure to tickle and provoke purists, while at the same time probably cause neophytes to feel a bit lost. A major plot twist pops up — which includes the arrival of Leonard Nimoy — about halfway through the film, a twist that doesn't exactly work and from which the film never completely recovers.