I saw the new Star Trek film the day it opened.... had some minor gripes about it but overall, loved the alternate universe "reboot / re-imagining" of the original series concepts. My comment to my friends as we walked out of the movie, "They found a way to bring new life to the best crew of the most beloved starship in Scifi."
My main complaint was that it took a 4 issue comic book prequel to establish the origin of the anatagonistic relation between Nero and Spock Prime, which took place in the post-TNG/DS9/Voyager timeline... That info should have been included in the Spock Prime-Kirk Mind Meld sequence to make the movie motivations a lot more coherent.
A lot of the background and motivations that were missing or murky in the film were expanded upon quite nicely in the novelization / audiobook. i.e.:
- Spock's birth and various key events in his life.
- The reason young Kirk went joyriding with the 65 Vette... (By the way, a perfect choice of vehicle, it was the dream car for many when the original series premiered back in '66!)
- Spock Prime's explanation for the many "coincidences" that were occuring in the new timeline.
I've been a fan of much of Alan Dean Foster's writing since the Tar-Aiym Krang novel first came out, and always admired his ability to expand upon the scripts for various movies and series giving the stories a life of their own.
Now if all the moron fans out there would stop screaming to see a remake of The Wrath of Kahn.... If they'd stop to think about it, they'd realize they've just seen The Wrath of Kahn, mixed in with The Search for Kirk as well. (grin)
Looking forward to seeing where they'll go with the franchise from here.