As someone who is confused and conflicted about what all of this "alternative" and "prime" junk adds up to, I must say that to me the best part of the film overall was the opening r.e. the Kelvin. They hit this part out of the park. The rest is still up for debate, in my book, but these scenes were fantastic.
In response to this post, my personal feeling is to just get over trying to figure out what's "alternate" and what's "prime" and just enjoy the movie for what it is. Do I want consistency in my
Star Trek? Absolutely. I don't want one episode to say one thing, and then another to say the opposite, at least on the big things. If little minute details are changed, I'll overlook it on a case-by-case basis. I for one, can't stand what they did with the Borg history in VOY's
Dark Frontier, but that's for a different thread.
But the filmmakers did something they really didn't need to do. Unlike Ronald D. Moore who just scrapped everything and created his own BSG universe, J.J. Abrams and company took the time to craft a story that had its backstory in the established canon. This merely served as a way to create a new universe. They didn't need to do this, but they did, and I really don't mind accepting this as just a new universe.
Back to the original post, I thought the opening ten minutes of the movie was not only one of the greatest movie openings I've ever seen, but also one of the best sequences in both a
Star Trek movie and any movie. Period. It was heart pounding, breathtaking, and I had a lump in my throat as George Kirk knew he was on his way to his death. It absolutely brilliant! I wanted more and I'm thrilled with what I got!
