Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm not sure Abrams is the one to blame for this debacle. His work on Lost has simply been too fantastic for me to believe that he was the buffoon behind this pathetic film. I'm more inclined to believe it was a bunch of marketing execs with MBAs who looked at the iconic Star Trek series like they would, say, Coca-Cola or Levi's jeans: as a product to be milked for every dime they could squeeze out of it. My evidence: 1.) The "bad boy" characterization of Kirk, complete with reckless driving, discipline issues and constant friction with authority figures. This James Tiberius is the quintessential smart-a** kid who proves he really is not only way cooler than his nerd teachers but also smarter. Think Ferris Bueller with a phaser. 2.) The stupid, one-dimensional portrayals of the other characters. Uhura as an ass-kicking sex symbol (Carrie Fisher in "Star Wars", Angelina Jolie in everything she has ever done, the chick from "Bones"). Spock as the noble yet tormented soul forever seperated from his home (Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," and let's not forget Superman), Scotty as the mandatory clown tossed in for comic relief (Friar Tuck in Costner's "Robin Hood", Nigel Bruce in the Sherlock Holmes films, Barney Fife, Lou Costello, that idiot in "Van Helsing," and countless others). The villian who is simultaneously a talented genius and a madman consumed with hatred and revenge (Ahab, Lex Luthor, Darth Vader). The producers didn't create these people, they yanked them off a shelf in a store called "Formulaic Plots'R Us." 3.) The Flash Gordon-style storyline, rife with pseudo-scientifc nonsense, Nokia product placement and, mandatory in this dumbed-down age, plenty of computer generated eye candy. Of course all of this is lost on its fans, who sing its praises while gathered around the gaming table of the local comic book shop. "Maybe I can't get a date, but who cares when I've got a life-size statue of the Dark Knight in my room in the basement! And mom better not throw it away again, or I'm moving out!" The saddest part of this tragedy is that Roddenberry intended Star Trek to be the thinking person's alternative to the brain-dead space westerns that pass for science fiction. Now, four decades later, his creation is turned into the very thing he despised. Maybe his vision of humanity's potential was a bit too naive after all. That's the sad truth taught by this joke of a film. Beam me up, Scotty. There really is no intelligent life on this planet.