If you're going to introduce a new generation of fans to a beloved television and film series like Star Trek — especially one with hundreds of episodes and ten films in its canon — you really don't want to upset the folks that got you there in the first place. Unfortunately, this is what J.J Abrams and his crew have done, at least to this 46-year-old Trekker.

Unfortunately, I can't go into too much detail as to why the new Star Trek misses the mark without giving away a number of plot points; so don't read any further if you're still planning on seeing it. Suffice it to say, Abrams hasn't just shattered the mold in which the previous series was formed, he destroys the whole planet.

The plot revolves around a renegade Romulan (Eric Bana) named, inexplicably, Nero (fiddling while the mis en scene burns, perhaps?) who is from the future, and is, for some reason, upset that Star Fleet, the mortal enemy of the Romulan Empire, took a somewhat laissez faire approach to saving the Romulan home world, which was destroyed by a supernova. Having gone mad, Nero is then somehow sucked into the past where he seeks revenge against a do-nothing Star Fleet. This prompts the future Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to travel back in time to meet . . . himself, and to attempt to correct the timeline. To say that this is a thin plot is like saying Mozart wrote some nice tunes. I've seen more substantive episodes of Scrubs.

But it isn't the time travel trope that's the problem. There have been a number of Star Trek episodes in which the paradox of time travel has been used to great effect, most memorably in The Next Generation (TNG) episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" in which the captain of Enterprise-C, Rachel Garret, meets the captain of Enterprise-D, Jean-Luc Piccard. In fact, Entertainment Weekly rated this episode as the best of the TNG series, and I would concur. But the current incarnation of the space saga misses the mark with a convoluted and implausible (even by Star Trek standards) plot. You come away from the film thinking, "huh?"

But this is not to say all is lost. There are some very enjoyable points, most notably the always-excellent Simon Pegg as ship's engineer Montgomery Scott. Pegg chews the scenery a bit; but, as usual, he makes it work, as his always-ebullient personality can't be contained by the somewhat stilted nature of the material with which he is working. Zachary Quinto, who has been far more memorable as the evil Sylar on the NBC series Heroes, acquits himself well, if not admirably, as the young Spock. Karl Urban and Zoe Saldana, respectively as Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy and communications officer Nyota Uhura (I never knew her first name either) are both passable, though the former's performance is a bit over-the-top, and the latter's somewhat wooden.

But where the film really breaks down is in Chris Pine's portrayal of a young James Tiberius Kirk. Pine's bad-boy performance is something straight out of of Star Fleet, 90210, and does nothing to inform the viewer about the events that shaped the man into the captain he later becomes. Instead, he's a carousing ne're-do-well who only gets serious when he has to. And the ending, in which the young Kirk is rewarded with a major — and utterly implausible — promotion, leaves the viewer scratching his or her head.

Some of the other familiar tropes have also fallen by the wayside. Gone is the swishing of the automatic doors, you won't find a tricorder within a light year, and Uhura's signature earpiece (a precursor to the ubiquitous Bluetooth headsets many of us wear these days) is also missing.

There are a few moments in which the old series shines through, however. Bones is introduced uttering one of his signature I'm-a-doctor-not-a . . . (screenwriter?) lines, and the young Spock arches an eyebrow or two. The viewer is also, finally, privy to the events that lead to Kirk's reprogramming of the famed, and allegedly unwinnable, Kobayashi Maru simulation at Star Fleet Academy. There is also a truly funny moment at the end of the film, in which the older Spock delivers to his younger self a clever paraphrasing of the famous Vulcan farewell.

The film is also very pretty to look at. The set design and art direction feel new, without departing too much from the original material, and the CGI is as seamless as I've ever seen. It's a good popcorn movie, and will, no doubt, inspire a new generation of loyal fans. Hopefully, it will cause those who are unfamiliar with the original series (still the best, in my humble opinion) to seek out old life and old civilizations.

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