If you have never seen a Star Trek episode, if you have only seen a few episodes, if it has been years since you have seen an original cast Star Trek movie and you don’t remember the plot of that movie, then you will love the new Star Trek film. It is fast paced summer blockbuster movie.

This is a true story of what I heard when I left the theater on Friday. A woman was talking to her friends a few rows behind me. She said, “That was a great Star Trek movie. I loved that it had all the cast in it but I wish they had gotten Data.”

Now, if you are a Star Trek fan, and by fan I mean you would know the difference between a Cardassian, Klingon, Gorn and Andorian, well, I will be reviewing the film for you in a bit. It will be filled with spoilers because, honestly, it’s the only way to review the film properly. I am giving you fair warning with this spoiler alert.

I was not a fan of the first Star Trek reboot. I thought it was an OK movie, I thought the actors were good, the storyline was OK but there were a couple of things that nagged at me and ruined the film for me. Compared to this new film, the previous film was close to excellent. So, let’s get some spoiler things out of the way. Yes, this is a reboot of Wrath of Khan and yes, the main villain is Khan. Now, let me explain one of the main reasons why this film has problems. Khan goes by John Harrison at the beginning of the film. When Harrison is captured and placed in the Enterprise brig, the music and tension swells when he reveals his name to be Khan. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are standing there with blank looks on their faces, as if they don’t know who he is. He talks about his 79 crewmates and still no recognition on their faces. He says he is a superior being and there is no recognition on the faces of the people in the room.

This grand reveal, this point in the movie where the audience have been told we have the great Khan in the brig means nothing to the people on screen and they never explain why Khan is dangerous, at least at this point in the movie. (and the way they explain who he is danger wise is a cheat I will explain later) I kid you not but the scene plays out, and honestly the plot of the movie, almost seems like the plot for Demolition Man. As the writer of this movie have worked the script, Admiral Marcus is very concerned about the threat to the Federation by Klingons, and the attack a few years earlier by the time warping Romulan renegades only heightens his concerns. When they find Khan and his crew (again, with no real explanation as to how dangerous he is) Marcus has him revived and has him help the Federation develop aggressive weapons because people of the 23rd century are a peace loving bunch who don’t have the raw savagery to wage a preemptive strike war against the Klingons. Similar words are spoken by Marcus in the movie, but no one has time to explain that Khan and his people were part of a eugenics program that almost took rule of the planet, thus causing the leaders to place them in cryotubes and launching them into space. The Eugenics War in Star Trek lore (pre time line reboot by Spock) was like World War 2; it was a known event by every person in the Federation. Many of the founding articles of The Federation were a direct result of that war. For Harrison to tell Kirk, Spock and McCoy that he was Khan would be the same as if somehow we found a cryotube, revived the person and that person revealed they were Hitler. The reaction would not be an unknowing look.

So one problem with the film is that Khan, who should be this larger than life threat to the crew because of the history of who he is, is reduced to just another villain out for revenge. The writers are expecting the audience to know who Khan is and what he is capable of but not the crew. This brings me to another and probably more bothersome issue than Khan. Because of the reboot, the writers know they don’t have to stick to Star Trek canon, but they like to throw out Easter eggs to the audience. Well this film is nothing but Easter eggs and it’s annoying. The film isn’t able to be a film on its own because they never bothered to make an original story. Essentially, they decided to reboot Wrath of Khan and since Kirk and Khan in this time line never had the Space Seed episode to make the fight between them personal, the writers decided to take bits and pieces from other Star Trek shows and movies to fill in the gaps. Mind you, they could have just as easily written an original plot to link to their reboot, but they didn’t. I knew I was in for a long haul with the movie when it was revealed by Admiral Marcus that the library that Harrison/Khan blew up wasn’t just a Federation library but was part of a division of Starfleet known as Section 31. Yes, Star Trek fans, the same Section 31 that was part of Deep Space 9 lore. Now, that was an interesting option to put in, and in my head had they made Harrison’s character Sloan, the whole revenge against the Federation might have made some sense. But the general public doesn’t know Sloan; they know Khan.

This is constantly done in the movie. Either in a major plot development or in a throw away bit, things from the pre-reboot timeline are thrown into the story. While it would be silly to me, it would be odd to think this was done just to placate fans. Worse, I started to see links I don’t think the creative team intended on happening as far as reference points to other Star Trek material. Peter Weller plays Admiral Marcus. Weller was in a two episode arc of Enterprise playing John Paxton. The character was very much like Admiral Marcus, a person who was driven to protect Earth from a threat they (the general population) didn’t understand. In the story arc, the threat was an allegory to illegal immigration and the belief of some that the immigration issue was diluting what makes America great. I have to ask, were there not any other actors who could play the part of Marcus other than someone who had played a similar character in the series?

A side note: I mentioned earlier that part of the plot could be seen as something lifted from Demolition Man. When I was describing the movie to someone I recalled a scene near the end of the movie that may make Star Wars fans happy or sad. When Spock and Khan are fighting on those floating platforms, it reminded me of the ending to Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan and Anakin and fighting on the skiffs on Mustafar. In a roundabout way this leads to another issue I had with the film. For the sake of changing things up, the script does a flip of some key elements in Wrath of Khan. In fact, the most crucial and emotional scene in Wrath of Khan, when Spock sacrifices himself to save the ship, is reversed. Let me make sure I lay this out correctly. The scene was, with a few minor modifications, was the same scene word for word. The big change was the role reversal. So Kirk is the one that is near the warp core and has to save the ship. He punches Scotty (he doesn’t know the Vulcan pinch) so he can go into the room. Spock is on the bridge when he gets word about Kirk. Spock makes the run down the corridor. Kirk gets the speech, but it isn’t about the needs of the many.

The big change in the scene is one that I want every Star Wars fan to listen to. From now on, I don’t want to hear how much you hate the Vader yell. Spock, overcome with emotions, does the infamous KHAAAAAAAAANNNNNN yell and it is laughable! The filmmakers took one of the most iconic instances in Trek history, something that is revered and honestly parodies at length, and made it a parody in this film. By this point in the movie, it was just fun looking for references to other Trek lore because it was that silly. Once Spock yelled, the movie shifted into Search for Spock. So that Klingon (Khan) bastard killed my son (friend Kirk) so I must avenge him by killing him. Wait, you can’t kill him because he has the Genesis device (Jesus blood) and we need that to save Spock (Kirk).

OK, what is Jesus blood? We learn early in the story that Harrison/Khan has super soldier (wait, wrong movie) super restorative blood. As I talked to one person about this plot point, if the writers had kept the use of the blood as a restorative agent against disease, it could be plausible that when they give Kirk the transfusion it could be reasoned that the blood has to constantly fight off the radiation damage. It wouldn’t be Jesus blood. The problem, scriptwise, is how McCoy discovered that he needed Khan’s blood to help Kirk was in an awkward scene where he injects the blood into a dead tribble (?) and hours later, at a crucial scene, the dead tribble is alive. Thus the term Jesus blood. As I saw one comment put it, Kirk, technically, can’t die or will be tough to kill and if we go by the ending of the movie, there is a lot of Jesus blood stored in that Starfleet warehouse.

Another nagging issue were two scenes where plot explanations were literally phoned in. One is where, for lack of a better metaphor, Kirk makes a smartphone call to Scotty while Scotty’s at a bar in San Francisco. Mind you, Kirk is onboard the Enterprise in or near Klingon space on an unauthorized mission, but if you have to do this for the plot of the story, so be it. The other phone call was while the Enterprise was in a cooling off time during a battle. Both ships were damaged, Kirk and Khan were about to do a dangerous stunt and Spock thought this was a good time to call a friend on New Vulcan. Yep, he used a lifeline to call First Spock (Leonard Nimoy)! In true new Star Trek rules fashion, after telling New Spock how he shouldn’t tell him about Khan, he proceeds to tell him about Khan.

As long as this review has been, it doesn’t scratch the surface of the many problems with the film. The science is convenient (teleport from Earth the Kronos anyone?) when needed. Things are done from action not logic (hide the Enterprise UNDER the water why?). Some moments defy logic all together. (let’s just float into a formation of ships at a super-secret facility, let’s talk/bluff a security guard for close to FIVE minutes in a hanger and not have the guard just blow the unauthorized person away) Oh, let’s not forget the Die Hard scene with the hose. Like I said, people that aren’t Star Trek fans will love it and I think even if someone is a Star Trek fan, if they aren’t into the lore and come into the movie with a blank slate they might enjoy the movie. From some of the reviews I have read since seeing the movie, those reviewers who brag about not knowing anything about Star Trek are allowing themselves to like the film despite basic plot errors. This is accessible Star Trek and many audience members will like it like that.